


It Ain't Over Till It's Over

by Rubyleaf



Category: Black Clover - 田畠裕基 | Tabata Yuki
Genre: Alternate Universe: Canon Divergence, Asta is more reckless than what's good for him, F/F, M/M, Slow Burn, Suffering, Yuno can't deal with his crush, aka The Longfic Where I Have No Idea Where It's Gonna Lead But I'm Writing It Anyway, basically an AU where Asta never got any powers, it'll make more sense here you'll see, the Noelle/Rebecca is just a side ship and my precious rarepair that I'm gonna convert you to, there will be drama, they had like One Scene in canon but LISTEN, totally not an excuse to torment characters and readers alike
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-01-22 11:09:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 61,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12480212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubyleaf/pseuds/Rubyleaf
Summary: Asta never received a Grimoire or any powers. To Yuno this marks the end of their rivalry, but Asta wouldn't be Asta if he didn't try to make it big anyway.





	1. The Boy Who Had Nothing

**Author's Note:**

> YunoAsu Discord chat:  
> https://discord.gg/RyXechk
> 
> Let's bring together the scattered shippers and bond a little!

This is not a legend. It is not a myth or a fairy tale, told by parents to their children to make them fall asleep with a smile after a long, exhausting day.

This is only the tale of the man who had nothing, lost everything, and became a story for the ages.

\---

His tale begins in a small, distant village, poor but peaceful. It begins at the door of an orphanage, with a tiny basket, a blanket and a knock on the door.

No one in the village could say who had left these two little boys sleeping at the door. Nobody had seen anyone, and a stranger would certainly have caught people’s attention; but there had been no suspicious figures, no odd activity, nothing. After some time no one seemed to care anymore, and the little boys were simply raised alongside the other orphans in the house, two children out of many, two more mouths that needed feeding.

Asta and Yuno could not have been any more different. Where Asta was loud, hot-headed and energetic, Yuno was quiet and demure, as intelligent as he was sensitive and prone to hiding behind his loud-mouthed friend. And yet, maybe because of that, maybe in spite of it, they were inseparable. Where one went, the other followed. What one thought, the other spoke out. They seemed joined at the hip, sharing a psychic connection that nothing in the world could ever break.

Or so it seemed, until the fateful winter night when Asta came home battered and bruised, and the emotion faded from Yuno’s face to leave only a serious frown and a quiet, calm voice.

At first people thought they might have had a fight. Yuno was no longer hiding behind Asta, acting almost cold around him and refusing to follow him any longer. Asta, meanwhile, kept running off into the forest for hours each day, returning only when it was already dark, breathless, dirty and exhausted and too hungry to talk. People thought they might be avoiding each other, and yet, when the day was over, they wished each other goodnight and fell asleep next to each other like they always had.

Their connection had changed. But it was still there. It had taken the shape of a vow, a promise and, as the years went on, a growing, pleading, desperate hope.

_Please let me use magic._

_Please let Asta use magic._

Because, even as everyone else discovered their powers and as Yuno learned to do tricks that no one else in the village could do, Asta remained powerless. No matter what he tried, no matter how hard he worked, he couldn’t use magic at all, not the smallest whiff, the tiniest ounce. A late bloomer, people started calling him. Then an anomaly. And then, finally, a weakling, loser and failure.

_We might not stay rivals forever._

The thought crossed Yuno’s mind more and more often. He tried to shut it down. Asta’s magic was just late, he told himself. Everyone could use magic, he had never heard of a single human being who couldn’t do it at all. And he worked so hard for it. Sooner or later, he told himself, Asta would discover his powers just like everyone else had. He had to. He needed to. Anything else would make no sense.

But nothing happened, and Yuno couldn’t shut the thought down any longer. The possibility that Asta might stay powerless forever grew more and more real with every passing day.

Wait, he told himself. We haven’t got our Grimoires yet. When we have those he’ll be able to use magic for sure.

But part of him, the more realistic, down-to-earth part, couldn’t help feeling like that was nothing but wishful thinking.

And so he distanced himself. He acted like he didn’t care. He couldn’t show emotion, frustration, sadness, disappointment. That was something only Asta could do; Yuno wasn’t strong enough, not brave enough to pull it off. He had promised himself not to show weakness ever again. So all he could do, even as it ate away at him from the inside, was pretend that he had never cared that much, like their promise and rivalry had never mattered to him as much as it did to Asta… like it hadn’t kept him going every day since that time.

Even if, deep down, he was still hoping, pleading, praying that Asta would make it after all.

\---

The tower was crowded. All around them were people, voices, excited eyes resting on the walls, the shelves, the rows and rows and rows of books that were about to take flight and cross the distance to their new owners. Yuno wasn’t listening. His heart was pounding, his hands cold, but not because he was nervous about his own Grimoire. What he got didn’t matter, it would be enough no matter what. But Asta…

_Please give him a Grimoire. Something, anything. Some way to let him use magic._

He barely heard the end of the old man’s speech. Then a ripple went through the air, and dozens, hundreds of books slid out of the shelves and took flight at once.

One by one, the books arrived in their owners’ hands, a hubbub of voices chattering through the tower as countless people searched through their books and compared them at once. Yuno’s eyes still rested on Asta. Please…

But the books all landed, and Asta’s hands were still empty.

_Please, no. This can’t be it._

“Excuse me!”

All eyes rested on Asta, and Yuno quickly looked away.

“My Grimoire isn’t coming!”

There it was again. The shouts, the laughter, the mocking voices. Yuno closed his eyes and shut them out, hoping against hope that there was some sort of mistake and Asta would still get his Grimoire, just as promised.

But the old man’s face showed nothing but confusion as he sighed and gave Asta an apologetic look. “Then… come back next time.”

_It’s over._

Asta couldn’t use magic. It was official now. There was nothing he could do, nothing that would give him the tiniest sliver of a chance to still become Wizard King like he had always hoped.

This was it. This was the end of their rivalry, the end of the dream they had always shared, for all these years.

Yuno honestly wasn’t sure what he had come here for anymore.

A light flashed amid the shelves. A giant tome moved from a row of books and launched up into the air, bright and shining, gliding right into Yuno’s hands and settling firmly in his grip, a gentle warmth radiating from the cover.

The tower fell silent. Countless eyes flitted over and rested on him at once, awe-struck and wide.

Then the whispers started.

“Did you see that? It’s a four-leaf clover!”

“Isn’t that the one from the legends? How did he…?!”

“The same kind the first Wizard King held… It holds incredible power!”

“And that street rat, to boot… Why not us? What does he have that we don’t?”

“Just how powerful is he?”

Yuno stared at the book in his hands, then at the crowd. Then back at the book.

He had been chosen, he realized. He had just received an incredible power, a power few people in the world could wield. And it was here, in his hands, offering itself to him, an ability that could take him anywhere… that could make him reach the goal he’d been striving towards ever since his childhood.

Even without his rival to push him on, he still had a chance. He could do it. It wouldn’t be the same, but he could do it.

No… he  _would_  do it.

Clutching the Grimoire in his hands, straightening his back, raising his voice so that everyone could hear, he gazed straight ahead as if he was only looking at his goal, the words he spoke a challenge and a promise.

“I’m going to become Wizard King.”

_For both of us, Asta. If you can’t do it, I will. Promise._

The entire tower gaped at him. Then the cheering broke out. All around him people were shouting encouragements, patting him on the back, complimenting him and wishing him luck and cheering him on. He barely listened to them. He simply stood, tall and proud, gazing down at Asta in quiet anticipation.

Had he caught it? Had he understood the promise?

“Yuno!”

Yuno tensed up. Asta’s hands were balled up into tight fists, his gaze set, determined, a hot, stubborn fire burning in his bright green eyes. There was no fear in his expression, no hesitation. Not even anger or frustration. The only emotion in his face was courage, plain, straightforward and simple.

“Just you wait!” he shouted, his voice echoing off the walls, reverberating through the tower. “I’m gonna catch up in no time at all!” He took a deep breath. “Because I’m your rival, Yuno!”

He should have known. He should have expected this. And yet…

Laughter broke out. People were pointing their fingers, clutching their sides, doing mock imitations of Asta all around, waving their Grimoires in front of his face. “Says the guy who never even got a Grimoire!” Yuno heard someone shout. “Someone like you calls himself his rival?”

Asta ignored them. He ignored them all. His eyes stayed fixed on Yuno, locked with his gaze, hanging onto his lips as he waited for an answer.

Yuno had to force himself to keep his face blank.

_This idiot!_

Why did he have to keep doing this? Why did he have to keep on hoping, stubbornly believing that they could stay rivals even when the last chance was obviously gone? Why did he keep on giving Yuno false hopes when he was still trying to come to terms with the fact that their rivalry was over for good?

He wouldn’t make that mistake anymore. He wouldn’t give in to Asta’s hopes. He had to stay realistic. And the realist in him knew that there was only one way to do that.

The harsh, painful truth.

“You are not my rival.”

The words seemed to burn the tip of his tongue. They sounded wrong in his voice, twisted, unnatural, like someone else was using his voice to speak. They tasted like falsehood and betrayal… almost like cowardice.

Asta gaped at him with wide eyes. Yuno set his jaw and didn’t wait for his response. He simply turned around and walked off, walked away before the mask of stoicism on his face could start to crack.

From this day on it was no longer him and Asta, he realized. It was just him, striving for his goal for both of them, alone.

Just the thought felt terribly, terribly lonely.


	2. Full Minds, Empty Chairs

They went to celebrate Yuno’s new Grimoire afterwards, but Asta didn’t join.

It wasn’t that he was upset. It wasn’t that he was angry or disappointed or resentful of Yuno in any way. Truth be told, he wasn’t even surprised. What was up with all those people, freaking out over Yuno’s cool, awesome, super-rare Grimoire? Of course his would be amazing! He was way better than the rest of them together, after all. How else could he be Asta’s one and only rival?

_You’re not my rival._

Asta clenched his fists and ran faster. Of course he’d let that get to his head, the stupid handsome jerk. Just because he was so cool and powerful and popular and talented and drop-dead gorgeous he thought he didn’t need a rival anymore? Then, putting it simply, Asta would just have to work harder than ever and get him back to reality!

He hadn’t got a Grimoire. So what? That didn’t mean he’d never get one! That grandpa at the tower had said it himself, he should come back next year. But maybe he wouldn’t even have to wait that long. Maybe his Grimoire wasn’t even in the tower at all! Or maybe someone had lost it on the way here? Then he’d travel the whole stupid country until he found it! It had to be somewhere, right?

_Right?_

What if he was wrong? What if there was no Grimoire for him after all?

_What if I can never do magic?_

He sped into the forest and up to his favorite tree, sprinting around it three times just for the hell of it. No way. There hadn’t been a single person in history who had no magic skills at all. And he couldn’t be the first one! How could he become Wizard King if he never got any magic? That couldn’t be right! He had to have magic, because he was the future Wizard King!

“Yeah!” he shouted into the empty forest, startling a flock of birds out of their trees. “I’m not giving up yet! I’m gonna catch up to you, Yuno! Do you hear that, you giant stupid jerk?”

\---

“Asta still hasn’t come back, huh…”

Sister Lily sighed, worry clouding her blue eyes as she gazed at the door with a frown. “I wonder where he is,” she said quietly. “It’s already dark… I hope nothing happened to him!”

“Maybe we’re lucky and he never comes back this time,” Nash said around a huge mouthful of potatoes.

“Come on now, Nash.” Sister Lily gave a nervous smile. “It’s not nice to say that!”

“‘s true. It’s way quieter here without him.”

“ _Nash!_ ”

Yuno spaced out and said nothing. The chair next to him was empty, gapingly, soul-suckingly empty, a constant reminder that their small family table was missing a piece like an incomplete puzzle. Yuno tried not to look at it. He tried not to look at the plate full of potatoes that was getting cold next to his own, tried not to hear the silence, the glaring absence of the usual shouts and full-mouthed comments in his ear. And he tried not to worry. Not about Asta… and not about himself either.

No, he didn’t have to worry about Asta. Asta was strong and fearless. The dark had more reason to be afraid of him than he had to be afraid of the dark. He’d be fine, no matter what he was doing out there and when he was planning to come back.

But… when would he be back?

Asta had never been out that late. He had come back after dark before, of course, countless times. He had been late for dinner too, even though he hated it and would always complain that the others had left him so little. But not once in their life, not a single time, had he ever missed dinner completely.

_What if he’s not coming back?_

Yuno shut down the thought. Asta would never leave like that. He still had Sister Lily here, and the other kids were as dear to him as they were to Yuno. He’d never leave them without saying goodbye. Most likely he was just out there doing something stupid, and late in the evening he’d come back covered in mud and twigs and scratches and shout them awake when he discovered that there was next to no food left from the feast, and it was all cold.

_But what if he’s avoiding me?_

He tried to focus on the taste of his food, but the thought lingered in the back of his mind, hovering over him like a shadow and refusing to leave. _You’re not my rival…_ After everything they had gone through, everything they had done together, all the years of pursuing their promise, the words had to feel like a punch in the face. Anyone would be upset. Anyone would be angry… Asta had every reason to feel that way. In his place, Yuno would too. If Asta didn’t want to see him for some time, it would only be natural.

Should he say something? Yuno pushed aside his plate and stood up, muttering something about being full. He should probably talk to Asta. The more fragile, sensitive, emotional part of him wanted to apologize, to seek him out and tell him it was a promise, that he would make it to their goal for the two of them even if their rivalry couldn’t continue. He wanted to tell him that he wished it hadn’t ended this way, he had been hoping Asta would make it until the very last moment, desperately wishing for some way to continue the way they always had. He wanted to tell him that even after everything that happened, he would always admire and respect Asta no matter what.

Something tightened in his chest, and he swallowed. No way, he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t pull it off without showing the same emotions that had made him so weak as a child, and now of all times he needed to be strong. He had worked so hard to put up this perfect mask of stoicism. He couldn’t let anything shatter it now.

So he simply walked out and went up to their room, standing at the window and staring out at the moonlit landscape, wondering where Asta might be, secretly hoping to spot his unmistakable silhouette walking up the grassy hills to return home.

Downstairs, at the dinner table, the spare plate of food had gone cold.

\---

It wasn’t until he ran face-first into a tree trunk because he couldn’t make out its shape that Asta realized it had long gone dark.

He looked around, blinking into the pitch-blackness of the forest. When had the sun managed to set? He had been so immersed in his training that he hadn’t noticed at all! What time was it now? Definitely late enough for the younger kids to be asleep… Had the others gone to bed too? Yuno might still be up, reading late into the night as usual… Or was it so late that even he had called it a night? Was it already past Asta’s own bedtime?

A huge, lion-sized yawn answered that question for him. Now that he had become aware of his surroundings again, the sleepiness and exhaustion had finally caught up with him, his eyelids threatening to fall shut as his body grew almost immovably heavy. Crap, he should really go home and sleep. Otherwise he might just doze off here, right in the middle of the forest.

Stifling another yawn, he groped his way through the woods until he was back out in the open, trudging over the grass in the pale light of the moon, heading for the lone illuminated window of the orphanage ahead. The rest of the village was dark, already sunk into a deep, peaceful sleep. The only noise came from an owl, his footsteps, and the low rustling of the wind.

Asta opened the door with a creak, careful not to make too much noise and wake his family. Creeping along the wall, he slipped through the house, knocked his foot against a piece of furniture he couldn’t identify in the dark, bit back a yelp of pain, and hobbled on, feeling his way around any other obstacles. He made it to the steps and started to climb when his foot landed on one that gave a loud creak.

He jumped back and nearly fell backwards down the stairs. His eyes darted about as he listened for any signs of someone waking up. But there were none, nothing but silence and Asta’s own breaths in his ears, and he gave a sigh of relief and went on, testing each step before putting his weight on it. He should probably work on his stealth too, he thought. If it was Yuno he’d already have climbed up without a noise and be waiting for him above with an amused smile. Unacceptable. When Asta finally got his magic he’d do his best to become unbeatable at sneaking too.

Peering around the corner, Asta left the stairs and inched past Father’s and Sister Lily’s rooms on his tiptoes. There was still light shining under Father’s door; he must be working again, as he so often did at this time of the night. Asta squinted at the light. It was helpful to find his way, but compared to the darkness all around it seemed almost painfully bright.

And then he was at his own door, the door of the room he and Yuno had moved into to leave the bigger room to the newly-arrived little ones, peering through the crack before slipping inside.

The room was already dark. If Yuno had been up reading again, he must have stopped a long time ago. By now he was fast asleep, curled up under his blanket, his face half buried in the pillow, one hand dangling over the edge of the mattress, much the same position he had already slept in ten years ago. But unlike back then, his face wasn’t peaceful anymore. It was drawn with worry, his brow furrowed, his jaw set, his elegant, handsome features drawn with inexplicable sadness. His lips were moving without a sound. Then he rolled over, wrapping his arms around the pillow and burying his face inside it with a quiet groan.

“Yuno?”

No reaction.

“Hey, Yuno!” Asta said in a stage whisper. “You okay?”

Yuno shifted again and muttered something unintelligible.

Asta inched closer to his friend’s sleeping figure, bending over him and trying to get a look at his face. “What’s wrong, Yuno?” he whisper-shouted. “Got a nightmare?”

Yuno said nothing and rolled over again, facing Asta with closed eyes, the moonlight falling on his skin, painting it milky white. He looked even sadder than before, so impossibly, heart-wrenchingly sad that Asta couldn’t help reaching out and grabbing his hand, giving it a powerful squeeze.

“Beat that nightmare, Yuno,” he whispered as his friend returned the squeeze, holding his hand so tightly that Asta wondered if he’d ever let go. “You can do this. That’s why you’re my rival, you prick!”

Yuno didn’t wake up, but his features relaxed, his grip on Asta’s hand loosening a little until he finally sighed and let go with a smile. Asta continued to watch him for a moment to make sure the nightmare didn’t come back, then he yawned, slipped off his shoes, and flopped down onto his own bed without bothering to change clothes.

“Good night, Yuno,” he mumbled and fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

It wasn’t until he woke up early in the morning that he realized this was the first time in his life that Yuno hadn’t said good night back.


	3. No Rest for the Stubborn

Dawn had barely crept over the village when Yuno awoke from uneasy dreams, the first rays of the sun flitting over his face, eager and restless and excited to start the day. Excited… like a puppy, a young horse, or… or a certain someone.

_ Asta… _

Yuno rolled over, his eyes searching for the familiar mess of dirty blond hair, but the bed next to his was empty. Only the crumpled sheets revealed that anyone had slept in it at all last night. Asta was gone again, maybe downstairs, maybe back wherever he had been all day yesterday.

Yuno didn’t even know when he had fallen asleep last night. He had spent what felt like hours and hours standing at the window and gazing outside, waiting, searching for Asta’s small but strong form emerging from the woods and walking up to the house, probably tired and worn-out but happy. But Asta hadn’t come, and one by one the lights of the village went out as the others in the house fell asleep until only the pale light of the moon was left to illuminate the sleeping world, and Yuno could barely make out the vague shapes anymore. He had given it up and gone to bed then, although he hadn’t been able to fall asleep. In the growing, suffocating silence he had continued listening for footsteps, doors creaking open, any sign of life in the sleeping house, any sign that Asta might finally be coming back. He wouldn’t sleep until he saw Asta, he had told himself. He would wait and try to talk to him, he told himself, try to clear up any misunderstandings between them, even if it meant staying awake and waiting all night.

But in the end he hadn’t made it, it seemed. His body had given in and he had fallen asleep without ever getting a glimpse of Asta’s face, whispering a goodnight to the empty room before finally drifting off into the realm of dreams.

What had he dreamed about again? He didn’t remember… it had been something worrying, something restless… he felt like he had tossed and turned in his sleep, but the details of his dream slipped from his grasp just as he reached out for them. All he remembered clearly was a moment of peace, a hand grasping his own… a voice calling his name…

Had he dreamed that? Had it been real?

_ Asta… _

No, definitely not. It must have been his subconscious trying to calm him down. After all, Asta was gone again. He had come back after Yuno had fallen asleep and run off again before he woke up… that wasn’t like him at all.

Was he really avoiding him?

Asta wouldn’t do that, he told himself. Asta was way too honest and straightforward to avoid people like that, no matter how upset he was. If he had a problem he’d already have yelled at Yuno for it so that the entire village could hear.

…Right?

It would be natural… but then again, had Yuno ever seen Asta so truly upset that he could predict his reaction now?

He swallowed. Asta’s face flickered back through his mind, wide-eyed and shocked, blank, completely taken aback. It had only been a split second, just a glimpse before Yuno had walked past him, staring straight ahead and pretending not to see his face, but that one glimpse had burned itself into his mind, a chilling, haunting image that crept up on him as soon as he closed his eyes. That look on his face… Had he ever seen that before? Had he ever seen Asta blinking up at him in such utter betrayal?

He should go and find him. Explain what he had meant. Apologize for acting like he didn’t care and tell him he did, he cared, he cared so much that he didn’t know what to do with it except try to hide his feelings.

But Asta wasn’t at the orphanage, and he wasn’t outside either. Yuno wondered if he should go look for him in the forest, but at that moment Sister Lily called him out to help, and the urging question of finding his former rival was temporarily driven off his mind.

\---

Asta had woken up earlier than anyone else. The sun had barely begun to slip out behind the distant horizon when he had got out of bed, yawned, stretched, and quickly washed and dressed himself before gulping down an improvised breakfast and slipping out of the house. Yuno had still been asleep in their room, not looking happy but at least not tossing and turning and mumbling anymore. Asta had half considered waking him up too, but he had quickly dropped the idea, deciding that he might as well seize this little advantage to try and catch up to the jerk.

He’d bet everything he had that Yuno was working harder than ever now. He must be preparing for the Magic Knights exam in summer, and Asta had no doubts that someone as super-cool and talented as him would get accepted without a single problem. All the more reason for Asta to work twice as hard. Asta, who didn’t have Yuno’s weird, awesome power or his cool, shiny Grimoire or any ounce of magic in his body, would have to work five times as hard, or he’d get left behind for sure!

So he worked. He ran around the forest for miles and miles and miles, sprinting at full speed even as he tripped over roots and stumbled into holes and scraped his arms and legs and face on countless twigs and branches, pushing them all aside, still running, running, running on. He did push-ups, one-armed and two-armed, pull-ups, crunches, until his joints creaked and his muscles trembled and every part of his body felt like lead, one thousand, two thousand, three thousand at a time. He climbed trees until he knew every single one of them by heart, resisting scratchy twigs and breaking branches and angered birds flapping in his face until he could see all the neighboring villages from above. He gulped down bottles upon bottles of moguro leaf juice, grimacing in disgust and draining half a bottle in one go. If he pushed himself past his limits, he told himself, he would get his magical powers for sure. He just had to get even stronger, strong enough to handle them when they arrived.

And tonight, he thought, tonight he’d come back and tell Yuno how hard he’d been working and rub it in his face that he was training harder than him, and Yuno would act cool but get all competitive and the two of them would keep pushing each other to push further and further and further past their limits, trying to one-up each other until it was time to leave for the capital this summer.

But by the time he remembered all that it was pitch-black again, and when he arrived at home and had stuffed his face with the combined lunch and dinner the others had left for him Yuno was already curled up in their room, looking restless even as he slept.

“Yup,” Asta whispered as he crawled under the covers. “I totally worked harder than you! Today’s my win, Yuno!”

Yuno rolled over and mumbled something into the pillow. Asta yawned, grinned, and closed his eyes. All right, then he’d just go bragging to him tomorrow. He couldn’t wait to see that jerk’s face when he told him!

“Good night, Yuno.”

He didn’t wait for an answer before falling into a deep sleep.

\---

The next days went by much the same way. Asta would wake up with the sun, earlier and earlier as spring started turning into summer, getting dressed and stuffing his face with breakfast before anyone else woke up. He trained non-stop until past sundown, returning home in the dead of night, sneaking back inside to find Yuno already asleep, looking more and more tired each day. Asta didn’t think much of it. Just like him, Yuno was working hard, constantly trying to surpass his own limits, wearing himself and his powers out to the bone. Only normal that he was tired. If Yuno didn’t try to push himself to the edge while Asta did, he wouldn’t be worth calling a rival.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into a month, then two. They rarely saw each other anymore, except for the rare occasions where Sister Lily caught Asta sneaking around the house at an ungodly time of the day and forced him to eat with the rest of the family, for the sake of old times and his own well-being. Whenever they saw each other Yuno was oddly silent, even more than usual, excusing himself from the table as soon as he was done eating and muttering something about getting more training in. Asta wanted to talk to him, but the food was more important, and by the time he was done stuffing his face with second and third and fourth servings Yuno was already long gone and nowhere to be found.

Yuno minded a little more than Asta did. He still missed the times when they had done everything together, he missed their squabbles, their endless competitions. He missed Asta’s voice that he had called annoying so many times, his stupid boasts and his wide, fearless grin that had kept him going for all these years, a constant reassurance that somehow, in some way, everything would work out if he just hung in there. He wished they could at least talk to each other, but on the rare occasions they saw each other awake they were always surrounded by other people, and Yuno found himself wondering what on earth he was even supposed to say. So he got out of there and said nothing, putting all his resolve into doing the same thing Asta did, trying to work the hardest he could and even harder than that to hone his skills and powers.

One time Yuno had woken up in the middle of the night to find Asta asleep in the bed next to his, one arm draped over his face, snoring loudly and drooling all over the pillow. He looked as if nothing had ever happened, lying there all relaxed, and for a moment Yuno had to resist the urge to get up and crawl under the covers next to him to cling to his shirt and bury his face in his chest, just like he had done every time he had a nightmare as a child.

Then he smiled. Not a chance, they were getting too big for that now. And it was embarrassing. He was no longer the child who had nightmares, after all; he was half an adult now, soon to start his career as a Magic Knight and aiming for the title of Wizard King. He was grown up now, he had responsibilities. For himself, and for Asta too.

Still, the image of his best friend lying there snoring like everything was all right with the world cheered him up, a warm feeling spreading in his chest as he rolled over and listened to Asta’s snores and mumbles. He’d miss this when he left. But he’d protect it. As long as he still had an ounce of strength left in his body, he would dedicate it to protecting all this and fighting for the dream that would connect him with Asta even when they were hundreds of miles apart.

He just wished there was a way to say all that to Asta. Alone, if possible…

Well, he was leaving soon. Maybe he should just go and catch Asta by himself sometime before he left.

\---

“ _ What do you mean, I can’t go? _ ”

Asta’s words reverberated from the walls as he jumped to his feet, staring back and forth between the Father and Sister Lily, hoping he had misheard. Were they kidding him? They were kidding him, right? There was no way they were actually serious!

“Asta, listen,” Sister Lily said gently, her soft blue eyes full of kind-hearted compassion. “We know how much you wanted to join the Magic Knights, but as long as your magic–”

“It’s gonna come soon!” Asta balled up his fists, straightening up to show off his newly strengthened figure. “I can feel it! It’s almost here! Soon I’m gonna have a Grimoire, and then–”

Sister Lily sighed. “Then you should wait. You can always try next year, if you’ve got your magic by then. As long as you don’t have powers it’s impossible anyway.” She tried to smile. “Wait a little, okay?”

“I’m not gonna wait! Yuno’s gonna take the exam this year and then he has a head start! I’m not letting that jerk win!”

“Asta, that’s enough.”

The Father stepped around Sister Lily, fixing Asta’s gaze with stern eyes. “You don’t have a Grimoire,” he said. “Their method of listing applicants is by labeling their Grimoire. You won’t even get into that exam. The trip will be weeks and months of wasted time.” He gave a quiet sigh, and his gaze softened. “It’s better for everyone if you stay here. We can use your strength. Your time will be better spent than with a pointless trip to the capital.”

“But,” Asta burst out, “but–!”

“No buts.” The old priest crossed his arms and turned to leave. “You’re staying. Everything else wouldn’t help anyone.”

Sister Lily gave Asta an apologetic smile, but she didn’t say anything as she followed outside, leaving him all by himself in the empty room, his blood boiling.

Were they both serious? Were they really forbidding him from entering the exam with Yuno? After everything he had done?

Nope. No way, no way, no way. He wouldn’t believe them, he couldn’t believe them. The trip wouldn’t be in vain. He might not have a Grimoire now, but he might still get it on the way to the exam! No, he would get it, he knew that. And even if he didn’t, he’d still find a way to get into that stupid exam anyway! That whole Grimoire thing was just a bunch of rules after all, right?

Slowly, little by little, something started piecing itself together in his mind. And step by step, inch by inch, he started to think of a plan.


	4. Unlost

The day of departure drew closer. The small, peaceful orphanage started hustling and bustling with nervous anticipation, preparations being made at every corner, goodbye visits paid, bags and belongings packed. The only one keeping a cool head in all the commotion was Yuno, quietly slipping in more training sessions whenever he could, organizing what he did and didn’t need, and memorizing the route of his journey until he was sure he knew it by heart. Everyone started looking at him with wide, admiring eyes, wondering how he could keep so calm when he was about to set off on the trip that would change his life forever.

Truth be told, they were mistaken. Yuno’s unshakable calm was only the tip of the iceberg, a layer of coolness that he had spread evenly over the surface, hiding the worries within. It wasn’t that he was worried about the dangers of the trip or the exam itself. That would all go fine, he knew. No, what he was worried about was leaving certain people behind.

Asta had been showing his face even more rarely than before. From before dawn till long after dusk he was always outside, only slipping in every once in awhile to grab something from the house and disappear as quickly as he had come, never telling anyone what he was up to. Yuno had no idea when he ate, let alone slept. As the big day drew ever nearer his bed would sometimes look completely untouched in the morning, leaving Yuno with the certainty that he hadn’t returned home at all.

Yuno missed him. Now more than ever. He wanted to see him again, as much as he could in the few days before their ways finally parted and they might not see each other for years, maybe decades, maybe a lifetime. He wanted to part with him on good terms, tell him he’d keep on fighting for the two of them, make it to the top of the world in Asta’s place so that, in a way, they would still both win. He wanted to tell him he had been his inspiration, his motivation, the reason why he had always kept on dreaming this dream. He might have the stronger powers, but he’d never have become anything without Asta.

But time was scarce, so scarce. Travel preparations were taking up almost all of his time, and on the rare occasions where he didn’t have to do anything Asta was nowhere to be found. And still time was ticking, ticking, ticking mercilessly down to the day Yuno would inevitably have to leave.

Asta stayed and stayed gone. He didn’t seem to come home at all. He didn’t show up to Yuno’s goodbye celebration. And then the day arrived, and there was still no trace of him.

Yuno adjusted the straps of his bags, letting his gaze roam over the orphanage, the village, the woods and familiar hills that he had called home for all these years. He looked at the kids who were lined up in front of him, meeting his gaze with wide, awestruck eyes, at the Father and Sister Lily who were smiling at him in a mixture of melancholy and pride. And he looked at the empty spot, the place where someone else should have been standing, his face all scratched up, his hair a tangled mess and his green eyes twinkling, the place that should have belonged to his best friend.

He had already said goodbye to everyone standing here. He would miss them, but it would be fine. They wouldn’t part on awkward terms. But the most important person of them all, the person he wanted to say goodbye to the most, had disappeared into nowhere without saying a word.

 _He won’t see me off, huh._ The thought weighed heavy on his shoulders, pulling him down like a stone in his chest. _He hasn’t been coming back to our room and now he won’t even come here to say goodbye._

Had he really upset Asta so much that he never wanted to see him again? Or was Asta just late, already running here because he had remembered when Yuno was supposed to leave at the last minute?

 _Not yet,_ said a voice in his head, and he honestly couldn’t tell if it was his or Asta’s. He wouldn’t leave yet. He would wait until the last possible second, and Asta would show up for sure. He definitely would. He had to.

So he waited. He waited, watching the hills and the forest and the orphanage, always on the lookout for the familiar mop of messy hair and the loud voice calling his name. But there was none; the only thing moving between the hills were the shadows as the sun crossed over the sky, rising ever higher until it was almost noon.

“Yuno,” Sister Lily said at last, “I’m sorry, but you really need to leave…”

_He hadn’t come._

Asta hadn’t turned up after all. He had gone on staying out of Yuno’s way until the last possible moment, and now it was too late.

Something cracked inside him. The last bit of wishful thinking shattered and fell down to the ground, shattering into a thousand pieces.

From now on it was definitely just him. Forever.

“I know,” he said calmly, not letting his face betray a single emotion. “I’ll be off then.”

He turned to leave, still listening behind him, a tiny, stubborn part of him still hoping to hear Asta’s voice calling his name from the distance. But all he heard was wind, and he could do nothing but start walking and pretend all of this was normal.

No, one more thing.

He turned around mid-stride, glancing back at his old family. “Oh, and tell Asta…”

Tell him what? That he was sorry for everything? That he’d miss him? That he wanted to carry on his dream now that Asta himself couldn’t reach it?

Not a chance.

Sister Lily still looked up at him with those wide, anticipating eyes. “Tell him what?”

Yuno turned back around and resumed walking. “Never mind.”

\---

Hills. Woods. Hills. Paved streets. Forest. Fields. Forest. Steeper hills. Cliffs. Mountains.

The landscape rolled by as Yuno kept on walking, following the paths he had memorized, going on and on and on at a steady pace, rarely stopping. He kept walking for one day, then two. On the third day he reached the mountains, just like he planned. Everything was going fine. He didn’t slow down, and he didn’t get lost.

Well, fine was relative. Traveling alone was lonely, incredibly lonely. He hardly ever met anyone on the road, and the few times he did were all short run-ins, awkward conversations before parting ways. But nothing was lonelier than sleeping somewhere in the wild, surrounded by an unfamiliar landscape, with no Asta nearby to drape himself over the grass, grin up at him, and wish him a good night.

What was he doing now? How was he doing? Was he still going out so early and coming home so late now that he didn’t have to avoid Yuno any longer? Was he helping out at home, running around doing errands, chopping wood with his brute strength, looking after the younger kids, trying to hit on Sister Lily? Did he, too, sometimes think of Yuno and miss being together?

He shook his head. _Stop it._ Thinking of Asta wouldn’t help him one bit. He’d have to get used to not having him around anymore; he was going to become a Magic Knight, and he would have more important things to mind. He should focus on his goal. For now that meant getting to the capital in time for the exam.

And yet he was still absorbed in his thoughts. So absorbed that, even if he had bothered to turn around, he probably wouldn’t have noticed the small figure slipping in and out of the shadows.

The mountains grew steeper. The paths grew more and more narrow, slinking and winding along sharp cliffs and gaping abysses. Yuno started moving more slowly. His footsteps grew more and more careful as he scrambled on, trying not to look at the yawning depth below.

Right now he was almost glad Asta wasn’t here… That guy was so clumsy and careless that getting through here would have been a pain with him around–

He never finished the thought. The ground crumbled away under his foot, and he fell.

“ _Yuno!_ ”

The voice echoed off all the cliffs and rocks, hundredfold.

Was he dreaming?

His fall stopped in midair. Something grabbed hold of his forearm, fingers digging roughly into his skin.

He looked up and caught his breath. This couldn’t be. He must have hit his head, and now he was dreaming.

And yet the firm grip around his arm felt as real as that pair of green eyes that he would have known from a million.

“A…?” His voice came out raspy, a rough, dried-out whisper. “Asta…?”

“Yuno!” Asta shouted back, reaching down and grabbing hold of his other arm, pulling him back on the path. “You okay?”

Yuno stared at Asta. Then at himself.

“I’m fine…”

Asta looked up and down his figure, then a grin spread over his face, bright and cheery and very much _real_. “Ya better be! I’m not gonna lose my only rival to a bunch of cliffs, got that?”

A wave of relief washed over Yuno, relief beyond anything he could ever have imagined. This wasn’t a dream. He didn’t know how, he didn’t know why, but Asta was here, right in front of him, full of energy and as real as ever. He wasn’t alone.

“You wouldn’t have lost me,” he said, a familiar spark of amusement twinkling inside him for the first time in what felt like eternities. “I could’ve saved myself.”

“Like hell you would! You were totally falling! If I hadn’t saved you–”

“–I would’ve used my magic.”

“When? You weren’t doing a thing!”

“I was waiting for the last moment.” Yuno couldn’t help a smile. “For dramatic effect.”

“Yeah, right!”

“It’s true.”

Asta snorted. Yuno snorted too. For a moment it felt like everything was perfectly normal, the way it had always been.

Then Yuno took a deep breath, stepping away from the edge of the cliff to eye Asta from all sides. He was more scratched up than ever, tanned from countless hours in the sun, and his cheeks had lost some of their volume, making him look older than he had only a few weeks ago. He looked like someone who had traveled through thorns and thickets for days without caring at all.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, y’know.” Asta shrugged as if all this was no big deal. “Father and Sister Lily didn’t want me to leave, so I followed you by myself.”

Yuno blinked, somehow surprised and unsurprised at once. “You what.”

“I followed you!” Asta pumped his fists. “Can’t let my rival get ahead of me!”

Yuno frowned. “You disappeared without a warning? They must be worried.”

“Nope! I left them a letter.” Asta put on a serious, important face as he closed his eyes, recalling the contents. “ _Dear Father, dear everybody, dearest Sister Lily, I’ve left with Yuno to take the Magic Knights exam! I know you think I’m not gonna make it, but I’ll show you. Don’t worry about me, I’m gonna become Wizard King someday for sure! Asta._ ”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure that’ll just make them more worried.”

“You’re the one who’s worried, Yuno!”

“Am not.”

“Are too!”

“Not a chance.”

Asta’s stomach growled, and Yuno looked at him in mild concern. If he knew anything about Asta…

“Do you have any food with you?”

“Nope! I couldn’t steal the other guys’ food!” Asta stuck out his chest even as his sunken-in cheeks seemed to become painfully visible. “I haven’t eaten a thing in two days!”

Yuno sighed, exasperated and unsurprised, and rummaged through his own bag to hand him a cold baked potato. “Here.”

“I’m not hungry,” Asta insisted as his stomach gave an even bigger growl.

Yuno had to force himself to hide a smile. “You’re drooling. Here.”

Asta didn’t try to argue again and stuffed the whole potato in his mouth at once. “Thanksh!” he said around the mouthful and closed his eyes in delight. “Mhmmmm! I can taste Sister Lily’s love…”

“I made those myself though,” Yuno said with a smirk.

Asta almost choked on the potato. “It tastes totally heartless!”

They shared more baked potatoes until even Asta was full and Yuno felt seriously concerned for the rest of his rations. With a content sigh Asta sat down on a large flat rock, gazing down into a valley below, quickly followed by Yuno. For some time neither of them said a word.

Then, with a strangely heavy feeling in his chest, Yuno finally spoke up. “You should probably go back.”

Asta simply crossed his arms and shook his head. “Nope.”

“The others are worried.” Yuno knew he sounded mechanic, saying the reasonable things when he wanted to say the opposite. “I don’t have rations for the two of us. And you might end up in the capital with nothing to do.”

“I’m gonna find something.”

Yuno sighed. He didn’t have the heart to tell him that the Magic Knight exam was not an option, that he was bound to fail. And then what? Return home by himself? Search for a job in the city when he’d never even learned anything?

“I don’t got any rations for going back either,” Asta added when Yuno remained silent. “And, uh… I dunno the way home. I’ve just kinda been following you.”

Yuno stared blankly at his face.

 _Perfect_ , said a voice in his mind. _Every excuse to let him join you. There’s no other option. You have to travel together, just like you always wanted._

He might regret his decision later. It might get them both in trouble, but right now keeping Asta around really sounded like the safest option, and his heart didn’t object in the slightest. On the contrary. He was glad, glad beyond measure, glad that Asta wasn’t angry at him, glad that he could keep his best friend around for at least several more weeks.

So he looked down at Asta and smiled.

“Let’s keep going, then.”


	5. Two Adventurers

Traveling really was fun when he wasn’t alone.

Yuno set off ahead of Asta, but as soon as they had reached the end of the narrow mountain path Asta caught up with him, cheerfully marching at his side until without warning he sprinted ahead, making Yuno bolt after him as they ran down the road, racing each other until they were both on their knees gasping for breath. They rested for a few minutes, but as soon as Yuno had more or less regained his strength Asta started running again, and they kept racing each other all day until the evening.

“I win,” Asta gasped out as he slumped against the nearest tree, panting and grinning. Yuno collapsed on the ground next to him, glancing up at him from the corner of his eye.

“You only won because you stopped when you were ahead,” he said as soon as he had breath enough to speak. “I was just catching up to you.”

“Were not.”

“Was too.”

“No way.”

“Yes way.”

They stared at each other for a moment. Asta started to laugh. Yuno gave a snort and smiled back at him, slowly regaining his breath as his eyes met with Asta’s, golden-green in the light of the rapidly setting sun.

“Let’s call it a day,” he said. “It’s getting dark.”

Asta gave him a taunting grin. “Tired?”

“Nope. Just don’t want you running into a tree because it’s so dark you can’t see a thing.” Still smiling, Yuno motioned him to a grassy spot a short way away from the road, between a handful of large, shady trees. “Let’s stay here tonight. Hungry?”

Asta’s eyes sparkled in response, and the two of them set up camp between the trees, happily sharing Yuno’s last rations and ignoring, for the moment, that they’d have to find something else to eat tomorrow. The sun disappeared behind the mountains. Long shadows fell over them, and little by little it grew darker and darker as their eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

With a remarkably huge yawn for his small body Asta curled up close to the fire, staring drowsily into the flames as they slowly died away. Yuno was still sitting upright, watching them flicker, half wondering if this might be a dream but too sleepy and content to care. His mind spaced out as he watched the fire shrink down to a glow and listened to the quiet crackling of the embers. Crickets started chirping around them. The light summer breeze carried snippets of a nightingale’s song.

Asta’s quiet, sleepy mumble roused him from his thoughts. “Yuno?”

“Mmm?”

“How far’s the capital?”

Yuno calculated the route in his head, recalling the map he had memorized in full detail. “Pretty far,” he said at last. “Weeks.”

“Weeks,” Asta repeated dreamily. “We’ve never been so far before, huh?”

Yuno smiled. “Don’t think so.”

“So cool!” Asta’s eyes sparkled brighter than the remains of the fire. “We’re already like knights on a journey! Yuno, Yuno, what d’you think the capital looks like?”

Yuno gazed into the distance, drawings of the big city reappearing in his mind, all different and one more breathtaking and impressive than the next. They were probably all exaggerations, he thought. Big cities were often romanticized by people who hadn’t lived there for longer than a week; if the books he had read were of any indication, they were mostly busy, crowded, messy places that barely left enough space to breathe. But it wasn’t like Asta would listen to him if he said that, would he?

“It’s big,” he said truthfully, trying to picture a giant city full of people. “And colorful. The buildings are much bigger than at home, and there’s a lot more people. People from different parts of the kingdom. Magic Knights patrolling the streets…”

Asta sat up with a delighted noise. “Awesome!” he shouted, startling the crickets into silence. “And soon we’re gonna be patrolling the streets like that too, right? Right?”

Yuno’s face fell a little. He still couldn’t see a single way Asta could possibly get into the Magic Knights that didn’t involve a miracle.

“I will,” he said with a smirk, trying to mask his worry as a taunt. “Not so sure about you.”

“‘Course I’m gonna.” Asta gave him that proud, confident Asta grin he always wore when he didn’t know what to do but was determined to come up with something, and that something probably involved three rash gut decisions, two neck-breaking risks and one near-death experience. Maybe Yuno should come up with a plan to stop him for the case that he didn’t develop sudden powers like he seemed to hope… even if the very thought of stopping Asta from pursuing their rivalry felt so wrong and unnatural he wanted to tear it out of his mind and throw it away like a garden weed.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said noncommittally, pulling up his blanket and curling up underneath it. “Go to sleep, munchkin.”

“Not till you do, pretty boy!”

“I’m going to sleep. Look,” Yuno replied as he rested his head on his bag and pulled the blanket up to his nose, closing his eyes. “So you can go to sleep too.”

Asta made a face like he was about to accuse him of cheating, then he gave another giant yawn and pulled up his blanket, only to poke out a limb on each side of it a second later. “Okay, okay,” he said drowsily. “Good night, Yuno.”

A wave of emotion swept over Yuno, an emotion he couldn’t name or describe, let alone explain. All he knew was that he  _ felt _ , so much, so strongly it was making him dizzy.

How long had it been since Asta had last wished him a good night like this?

He had missed this. He had missed Asta, missed spending time with him, missed talking and bickering and competing over stupid things, but there was nothing he had missed more than falling asleep side by side, knowing he was there, only an arm’s reach away, encouraging, reassuring…  _ wonderful _ . How had he ever managed to fall asleep without Asta around? He couldn’t remember, and looking back, he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

_ You might need to know soon… _

Yuno shut out that thought. All the more reason to take delight in what he had now, relish every moment and treasure them when parting ways became inevitable.

Smiling fondly at his friend, he adjusted himself under the blanket and closed his eyes.

“Good night, Asta.”

\---

Asta opened his eyes to find Yuno already awake, rolling up his blanket and glancing down in the middle of his work when Asta opened his eyes. “Good morning,” he said and returned to his work.

“Morning!” Asta replied around a yawn. Rubbing his eyes, he looked around the campsite that looked so different in the morning, simply gazing around aimlessly until the gears of his brain started moving and his eyes came to rest on Yuno once more. “Wait, how’d you know when I woke up?”

“You stopped snoring,” Yuno replied with an amused glint in his eyes. “It suddenly got all quiet here.”

Asta blinked at him with wide eyes, tilting his head in confused comprehension. “Oh.”

“Yeah, it’s not hard to tell.” Yuno returned back to packing. “C’mon, pack your stuff up, it’s almost time to leave.”

Sitting up and stretching, Asta scrambled out from under the covers and started wrapping them up, the last drowsiness falling off him as the cool morning air caressed his skin, excitement of facing the unknown shooting through his veins. Now that he was up he couldn’t wait to get moving, leave behind all the places he had ever known and face new, fascinating, unfamiliar land.

And the best part was that he didn’t have to sneak through the wild by himself anymore. He was traveling with Yuno now, and it was so much better than going alone. Nothing ever got boring when he was with Yuno, and the prospect of traveling the exciting new world had become twice as exciting now that they were about to go and see it together.

“Yuno!” he shouted, startling a rabbit that ran out of the undergrowth and disappeared on the other side of the path. “I’m done packing! Let’s go!”

Yuno threw him an appreciative glance, even if he didn’t seem to fully approve of Asta’s packing style. Then he set off towards the path, motioning for Asta to follow him. “Come on, I’m not waiting for you.”

“You don’t gotta! Here I go!” Asta yelled and sprinted to catch up to him. Yuno started running too, and a moment later they were racing each other through the mountains once more, rows of pine trees and jagged rocks passing on each side until they finally stopped for a breather.

“It’s a draw,” Yuno gasped, propping himself up on his knees.

Asta shook his head, struggling to regain his breath himself. “I was totally ahead of you!”

“In your dreams, maybe.”

“I didn’t dream it, you prick!”

Truth be told, Asta had no idea who had won their unplanned little race. They had been neck and neck for what felt like an eternity until finally their knees had given way at the exact same time, leaving them gasping and panting between a particularly large pair of rocks. He gave a satisfied grin. Of course they’d been neck and neck! They were always like this, just good enough to compete against each other, perfectly balanced rivals who kept pushing each other to new highs without ever leaving each other behind. Asta wouldn’t have it any other way. Even if he got the chance, he probably wouldn’t want to leave Yuno behind. And he trusted Yuno not to leave him behind either. That would be no fun, after all.

“By the way,” Yuno remarked, “last one to find something to eat’s a big loser.”

Asta perked up at the challenge. He didn’t have to think twice. His stomach was growling, and like hell he was losing to his rival after a boast like this!

“Okay!” he shouted through the entire valley, his voice echoing off the rocks. “Time to get some food! Here I go!”

Yes, he thought. Even looking for a snack was that much more fun when he was with Yuno.


	6. Countdown

The journey went on. They left the mountains and passed the plains, traveling through forests, grasslands, fields, deserts, towns, villages, under the scorching sun and the pouring rain, never straying off their path, never losing sight of their destination. Time was pressing. They had to hurry, or they might not reach the capital and the exam in time.

Yuno kept a close eye on the schedule, but in truth he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to arrive at their destination ahead of time like he had planned. What were they supposed to do there before the exam? The city would be more crowded than usual, they would need a place to stay… and one that they could afford too, with the little money they had managed to bring from the orphanage. Not that they would need much, of course. One bed should suffice for the two of them, just like it had back in their childhood.

He blushed a little at the thought. Sharing a bed… how long had it been since they had last done that? It had been normal once, of course… but back then there had been the other kids too. He and Asta had never shared a bed alone as far as he could remember. It had never been just the two of them, unless maybe as infants, and the thought of sleeping under the same blanket once again was somehow a little embarrassing.

He wondered how that would be like. Probably not a very good night’s rest. Knowing Asta, he would end up tossing and turning and talking in his sleep, stealing all the covers or snoring loudly or draping himself all over the bed, leaving no room for Yuno. Or perhaps he would fall asleep in a normal position but wake up sprawled all over Yuno, one arm dangling over his torso and his head resting somewhere between his shoulder and chest…

_ That would be nice. _

Yuno tripped over his own thoughts. What was he thinking? He had only imagined the most likely situation, one that had occurred countless times before, no less. And not once, as far as he could recall, had it ever been very pleasant. Of course, sharing body warmth was comfortable in winter, but when they arrived in the city in late summer it would be insufferable. To say nothing of Asta’s weight, which had to be a significant nuisance now that he was basically a packed mountain of muscle. Sharing a bed would be a pain in the neck and a guarantee that he wouldn’t do as well as he could in the entrance exam.

Maybe it was because… because he missed being close to Asta.

Yuno didn’t know what to call this feeling. Perhaps it came from staying apart for so long, or maybe it was just ordinary friendly affection; he couldn’t tell. All he knew was that he wanted to be as close to Asta as possible, take comfort in his warmth, his presence for as long as he still could before, at last, it was time to part ways once more.

Maybe that was also the true reason why he didn’t want to reach their destination. Because getting there would mean preparing for the exam and saying goodbye to Asta, and he still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do after that. If he made it in, if he became a Magic Knight, what would become of Asta? Would he have to find the way home on his own? What if he got lost on the way, what if he didn’t make it? And if he did leave, how long would it be until their paths crossed again?

Or maybe… no, most likely Asta wouldn’t want to go back. He would stay in the capital, fully aware that going home would mean giving up on his dream forever, waiting for the next entrance exam, and maybe even the one after that… and then? What would become of him? Would he keep on training harder than ever? Who would make sure he didn’t overtrain? Asta was strong, but he was still not unbreakable, reckless to dangerous levels. He would survive, of course… he would come out stronger, he always did… but what would he have to go through before that? Would he get a job somewhere? And what would he live on if he didn’t?

Asta probably had a plan, he thought. Asta probably knew exactly what he wanted to do, a perfect plan B laid out in his head, even though he didn’t mention it with a word, fully convinced that he wouldn’t need it anyway. Asta didn’t spend so much time overthinking and weighing all the risks. He didn’t need to do that. He was brave, brave enough to plunge into the great unknown without a fear in the world.

Maybe someday, when he was strong enough, Yuno could be like that too.

But someday wasn’t now. Right now he could only look up to Asta’s decisiveness, the way he plunged into everything with a wide smile on his face and a stubborn shout. And hope that, somehow, in the end, everything would be all right.

\---

They were getting closer.

Asta had always known it of course, but lately he could almost feel it. Every morning he woke up with the knowledge that they were one day closer to the city of their dreams, the place where he would become what he had always dreamed of being, the place where their future began. He couldn’t wait to see it. He couldn’t wait to see the crowded streets, the tall buildings, the colorful crowds and the Magic Knights in their uniforms, walking through the city and fighting evil with their amazing powers. He wondered what kind of people they were. Were they young? Old? Would there be lots of mages their age? Maybe they could find some friends. Especially Yuno, he was always so quiet. Company would do him good. He’d just have to make sure Yuno would still consider him his one and only rival.

He glanced up at Yuno. Lately his rival had been very quiet. Of course, he was always quiet, but there were times when he was more quiet than usual, and Asta could tell. Right now he looked like he was thinking hard about something, a little worried perhaps, gazing ahead as if there was something difficult looming at the end of the road.

“Hey, Yuno,” he said at last, waving a hand in front of his eyes. “Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout?”

Yuno blinked as if returning from a reverie, giving him a slightly puzzled frown. Then he looked ahead again, his face as blank as ever as he answered, “Nothing special.”

Asta tilted his head to the side, then his entire body, trying to get a proper look at his face. “What’s nothing?”

“Nothing you’d understand.” Yuno grabbed Asta’s head and pushed him back upright, none-too-gently ruffling his hair. “Let’s keep going.”

Asta made a face at his back and followed. Pouting, he looked up at Yuno, watching as he moved ahead once more, tall and graceful and cool as always and completely unreadable. Asta had no idea what he was thinking about, but he had no doubt that it was something amazing and deep and important, as always. Yuno always had these complicated thoughts. Asta didn’t always get them, but he thought they were incredible, just like everything about Yuno was cool and incredible. Even if he was kind of a jerk sometimes.

He couldn’t wait to reach the city together. He couldn’t wait to see the capital, the place they had dreamed of going to since they were tiny, see the place of their dreams and explore every nook and cranny together, roam every street and look at every window and every corner until they were blinded with lights and colors and their ears were overflowing with sounds. It would be amazing. It would be the adventure of a lifetime, and from then on they would set off on an even bigger, greater adventure that would go on for the years and years and years to come.

He just hoped they’d always stay together. Even after the exams. Even when one of them became Wizard King. But if they couldn’t, if for some reason they were separated, it would be fine too. He would just have to find his way back to Yuno after all.

\---

Two more days.

Two more days, and then they would reach the capital. Two more days, and they would be just in time for the exams, arriving on the very day it was scheduled to be, looming in front of them like a deadline. After that Yuno honestly couldn’t tell how they were supposed to stay together. Asta still didn’t have any magical powers, despite all his hopes. How did he not look discouraged? How was he not afraid? There was no way he could possibly pass the exam with no magic at all. Did he have something up his sleeve? He couldn’t possibly be thinking of going into the exam without so much as a hint at a backup plan, could he?

Well, he thought, this was Asta. Asta, who had never failed to surprise him. Asta, who had always caught up to him no matter what he did, without ever needing to rely on the slightest bit of magic.

Asta, who could somehow do anything.

Yuno smiled to himself. Maybe he’d manage after all. Maybe Asta would do what he always did and make the impossible happen, conjure up a miracle, astound everyone in ways they didn’t even know were possible. Maybe someone would see in Asta what only Yuno had always seen in him. It was unlikely. Highly unlikely. Maybe impossible, even. But not unthinkable.

The sun had already set. They had set up camp in the grassy hills, sitting under a large tree and leaning against the trunk without bothering with a fire for the moment. Summer’s heat had spread throughout the air and into the very essence of the soil, keeping the evening air pleasantly warm, almost a little too warm, even long after sunset. The chirping of crickets rang through the quiet. A gentle breeze ran through the tree above them, making the leaves rustle softly in the wind.

“How much longer?” Asta said as he stretched, adjusting himself against the tree. “Are we gonna see it tomorrow? Tomorrow?”

“I told you, I don’t know.” Yuno didn’t bat an eye; he had been hearing this question straight for a week, and despite his constant explanations Asta didn’t seem to be losing hope of seeing the city the next day. Apparently the legends people had told him had embellished the capital to a size that was visible from dozens and hundreds of miles away, and every morning he woke up with the hope of seeing its distant silhouette from afar.

“We’re gonna be there in two days, right? So we gotta see it tomorrow!” Asta chattered on, his eyes sparkling. “So cool! I’m gonna be on the lookout tomorrow! How much you wanna bet I’m gonna spot it first?”

Yuno gave an audible snort. “How’s the view from down there?”

“I’m gonna climb on your shoulders!”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Then I just gotta run ahead till I see it first!”

“Hmm. And who knows the way?”

“I’m gonna find it! Watch me!”

Yuno gave him a long look. Asta looked back. They both grinned at each other for a slow, wonderful moment, then a thought flashed over Asta’s face.

“I know!” he burst out, and somehow Yuno knew what he was going to say before he did.

“We should both spot it together!”

Yuno smiled.

“Yeah,” he said. “We really should.”

\---

Asta fell asleep on Yuno’s shoulder that night.

Yuno wasn’t sure how it happened. First they had been talking and bantering as always, and the next thing he remembered Asta was slumped against his side, head resting on his shoulder, fluffy hair tickling the side of his neck, breathing peacefully. There was a small smile on his lips, and he mumbled something unintelligible as he adjusted himself against Yuno’s side and moved on into some unknown happy dream.

Yuno sat perfectly still. Every inch of his body was hyper-aware of Asta’s presence, his warmth, the slow, steady movements of his chest as it rose and fall with gentle breaths. The right side of his body felt strangely warm, his heartbeat pulsing against his skin as if trying to send a message to Asta in a secret code, his insides fluttering with nervous, jittery happiness. So close. At long last Asta was so close to him, as close as he belonged, as close as he hadn’t been to him in a long, dragging time. And it felt welcome, wonderful, so wonderful that he didn’t want to do anything to end this moment, not now, not ever.

And yet it wasn’t enough. He wanted him closer. He wanted to drape an arm around his shoulders and hug him close to his side, keeping him close and safe and well-protected where he sat sleeping next to him. And he never wanted to let go. Not now. Not tomorrow. Not when they went to their exam. Not ever.

Wait. What was he thinking?

His face heated up. On a sudden impulse he threw a glance down at Asta’s sleeping face, as if expecting him to have somehow heard his thoughts in his dream. Asta didn’t stir. He only gave a tiny snore and a mumble and slept on like before.

He really was amazing. He was loud and stupid and wonderful and incredible, a packed ball of energy and courage, still every bit the childhood hero Yuno had looked up to so much when he was little. He was embarrassing, yes. He was completely ridiculous. But Yuno owed him his life, over and over and over again.

Maybe he’d be able to repay him, he thought. Maybe if he made it into the Magic Knights and Asta didn’t, he’d finally be able to protect him for a change, repay the lifelong debt he still owed him, the debt that he had never managed to repay. Maybe if he alone made it in, he would finally become strong enough to save Asta instead of only ever being saved by him.

But it would still be lonely without him as a rival.

Asta mumbled in his sleep, adjusting his weight. For a moment Yuno thought he would move away from his side, but Asta only snuggled closer, burying his nose in the fabric of Yuno’s shirt.

“…no…”

Asta made a small happy noise. Yuno felt him smiling against his shoulder. “Yuno…” he muttered. “We made it… we’re Magic Knights, Yuno…”

Something inside Yuno fluttered. What a beautiful, distant, faraway dream.

He hoped it would come true someday.

Pushing aside his worries, he reached out, carefully draping his arm around Asta’s shoulders and waiting. Asta didn’t stir. He only made a small sigh, as if taking delight in the comfort of Yuno’s arm around him.

So warm. So soothing. So…  _ good _ .

With a soft, encouraged smile Yuno tightened his hold, pulling Asta closer and shutting his eyes to let the night envelop them.


	7. Before the Beginning

It was Asta who saw the capital first. Of course it was.

He had dashed ahead again, outrunning Yuno in a curve, sprinting out up the hill and leaping straight into the air with joy. “Yuno!” he shouted, his voice ringing over the plains ahead and reverberating off the hills behind them. “I found it, Yuno!”

Yuno almost stumbled and leaped up to the top of the hill, coming to a halt beside Asta and drawing his breath. There it was. There was no mistaking it. Looming tall in front of them, reaching into the sky, was the biggest city he had ever seen. From this distance it almost looked like a giant anthill; but when he squinted Yuno could make out hundreds and thousands of tiny, minuscule buildings, so far away they looked almost like toys, even though he knew they had to be twice or thrice the size of the orphanage up close. But even they paled in comparison to the buildings at the top of the hill. It was crowned by high, slender towers, taller than everything else in the city, shining bright in the summer sun and watching silently over everything from the city walls to the horizon.

It was even more incredible than all the depictions he had ever seen or read.

“Yeah,” he said, more to affirm it to himself than to reply to Asta. “Yeah, you found it.”

Asta tore his eyes away from the city to look up at Yuno with a grin. “ _ We _ found it.”

“What’s that?” Yuno returned the smile with a teasing twinkle in his eyes. “Sharing your win? That’s rare.”

“Are you saying I won?”

“Nope. I’m saying you should think you won.”

“Isn’t that kinda the same thing?”

“Not a chance.”

Asta made a face at him and turned back towards the city, his eyes shining and sparkling with excitement and awe. “The royal capital,” he said. “We got there… Now we just gotta pass the exams, become Magic Knights and do a lot of cool stuff and get stronger, and then I’m gonna become Wizard King!”

Yuno opened his mouth to make a sarcastic comment, but before he got the chance Asta leaped ahead, running down the hill and towards the city. “Did you hear that, city?” he yelled, his voice echoing through the quiet plain. “You’re looking at your future Wizard King! Here I go!”

Yuno had no choice but to give an amused sigh and follow him.

\---

They still had a few hours’ time before the exam started, and their footsteps inadvertently carried them into the heart of the city.

Well, it wasn’t exactly their footsteps that led them here. Yuno had technically insisted on heading straight to the arena first, just to know the way and ensure they weren’t late– the keyword here being  _ technically _ , of course. He didn’t know how he had managed it, but Asta had sidetracked him completely, jumping from shop window to shop window and stall to stall and loudly marveling at everything remotely interesting, ignoring the map Yuno had organized them to freely follow the scents of bizarre and delicious food.

“Yuno, look!” Asta’s voice rang through the street just as Yuno had pulled out the map and started to figure out where they were for what felt like the nineteenth time in five minutes. “They got protective amulets! You think we should get some for everybody at home?”

Yuno sighed, put down his map  _ again _ , and followed Asta’s pointed hand to a booth with twinkling, cheap-looking, probably fake amulets. “These don’t work,” he said matter-of-factly. “They’re not magical.”

“How do you know? And even if they’re not, they’re pretty–”

“You can buy them,” Yuno deadpanned, “as soon as you got that kind of money lying around.”

Asta glanced at the price tag and made a horror-struck noise. “Wha– They– uh… Maybe I can ask for a discount?”

“Not a chance.”

“Dammit!” Asta looked frustrated for about thirty seconds, then an idea lit up his face. “I know! I’m gonna buy them from my first Magic Knight salary!”

Yuno paused, wondering what to say to him. Part of him wondered if he should gently break it to him that he didn’t stand a chance the way he was and that he should stop making plans for the time after the exams, because it would only make his disappointment greater in the end. But the other part, the sentimental, desperate part, still wanted to believe. Asta was so confident that he refused to think he didn’t have something up his sleeve, some trick, some plan, some secret technique.

Which didn’t keep this suggestion from being a very stupid idea, of course.

“Great idea,” he replied, his face showing no emotion. “And who’s gonna buy you food?”

“I’m gonna have enough money for these amulets and food! And if I don’t, I’m gonna save up till I do!” Asta clenched his fist and pointed his other hand at Yuno. “And you’re getting one too!”

Yuno’s stoic expression slipped for a moment. “Me?”

“Hell yeah! And yours is gonna be the best! Which color do you like?”

Yuno hesitated. He didn’t really want to answer, not before the exam. It somehow felt like tempting fate, making plans for a future that wasn’t even secured yet. And still… how much harm could it do to give an answer? Perhaps it would help. It was only a little thing, a small added motivation, but maybe it would do its tiny little part in helping them both do their best later.

So he leaned down to examine the amulets, cheap, stupid things, but pretty in their own way. At first his eyes rested on the blue ones; he had always liked blue, it reminded him of calm and peace and the wide, endless sky. But just as he opened his mouth his eyes fell on another amulet, lying a little off to the side, smaller than the blue ones and unremarkable at first glance, but shining with a vibrant, tenacious leafy green.

A green that brought a face to mind… bright eyes, stubborn and focused, shining and sparkling with endless energy and determination…

“The… green one.”

“Really? Okay!” Asta leaned down to examine the tiny green amulet. “Ooh, I can see why you like it!”

Yuno’s heart skipped a beat. Had he realized…?

“It’s green like clover!” Asta chattered on, and Yuno released a breath he had inadvertently been holding. “I bet it reminds you of that four-leaf clover on your Grimoire, you handsome jerk!”

Oh. Right.

“Maybe,” Yuno answered blankly, a little ashamed to be lying like that. But what should he have said? That he liked the green one because it reminded him of Asta, his eyes, the way he seemed so unremarkable at first but shone so bright that no one could tear their gaze off him once they realized he was there?

Maybe, he thought, if Asta didn’t make it through the exams, he would buy it instead. Use his first salary to go here and get it, and if Asta was still in the city by then, he would give it to him. No, even if he wasn’t. He would find some way to send it to him as a silent message to stay strong and keep on fighting, a way to connect them even when they were apart and their rivalry was long over.

Yes. When–  _ if _ they had to separate, he’d do that. It wasn’t much, but it was something, some way to stay connected even if life tore them apart. Some way to show Asta that even if he could no longer be his rival, that didn’t mean he looked down on him or wanted nothing to do anymore. Some way to promise him he was still his friend…

Or he could use words, of course. If only he knew how to find the right ones.

\---

The day was half over way too soon. Before they knew it Yuno and Asta were walking up to the arena alongside dozens of strangers, people standing on each side of the road, shouting encouragements and cheering them on. Asta shouted back at them, grinning and waving and pretending to be a celebrity, and Yuno hurried ahead pretending not to know him as long as he kept making a fool of himself.

And then they were standing in line to register for the exam, and Yuno shut out the world around him. He was tense as a wire. Every part of him was sparkling and crackling with electricity, ready to snap at the slightest impulse, his senses sharpened to the inhuman as he stood there, one hand around his Grimoire, listening to his own heartbeat thudding unnaturally loudly in his ears.

_ Don’t think of anything. _

Behind him Asta seemed as unfazed as ever, oohing and aahing at everything around him and not responding to the tension at all. Yuno shut his eyes and gripped his Grimoire tighter. His mind was blank. He wasn’t thinking of anything. He was simply ready, prepared for anything he’d have to do, anything the examiners might throw at him. He wasn’t thinking about the future. And he especially wasn’t thinking about  _ him _ .

No. He wouldn’t wonder how Asta wanted to get into this exam without having a Grimoire at all. He wouldn’t worry about him. Asta had a plan. He had to have a plan. Right now Yuno should only worry about himself and making it into the best Magic Knights squad that would have him.

And then it was his turn, and he handed over the Grimoire to the stranger behind the counter, barely registering the awed remarks about the four-leaf clover and the starting number he had been given. He was in now, he thought. He could enter the arena now.

He could leave, and yet he lingered close to the counter, a few steps away, his gaze flitting over his shoulder to observe Asta behind him.

“Your Grimoire, please.”

Asta gave the examiner a calm, perfectly unfazed look and answered, “I don’t have one.”

There was a beat of silence.

Whispers broke out in the line behind him, and the examiner’s eyebrow twitched. “E-Excuse me…?”

“I don’t got a Grimoire,” Asta repeated like it was the most normal thing in the world. “Can I still enter?”

More whispers in the line. Someone was muttering something about throwing the useless brat out and moving on already. The examiner looked both baffled and more lost than ever. “W-Well, this is about magical power… and if you don’t have a Grimoire, there’s no point in–”

“I’m gonna do it anyway!” Asta planted his hands on his hips. “Or is it against the rules?”

“N-Not reall– wait.” The examiner’s face brightened with an idea. “How can I confirm you’re fifteen years old if you don’t have a Grimoire?”

“A…bout that, uh…”

“I can vouch for him.”

Asta looked up. The examiner blinked. Yuno took a breath and placed a hand on his shoulder, half wondering why in the world he was doing this. “We’re from the same village,” he said. “He’s fifteen.”

The ones in line behind Asta made disbelieving noises. One boy rolled his eyes and groaned. The examiner looked up at Yuno with a distinctive frown, scrutinizing him from head to toe, then he sighed.

“All right,” he said. “I believe you. Your starting number is 157. Good…” He struggled with the word. “Good luck.”


	8. Barehanded

The big moment. At long last.

Asta took a deep breath, trying to look at the entire arena at once. So many people, he thought. So many people, crowding together, lining up, talking, so many strangers, so many faces, so many Grimoires – and all of them, he realized, were the same age as him and Yuno. So many possible friends and companions. So many potential rivals. He wanted to meet them all, talk to them all, find out who they were and what they could do and measure their powers against his own.

An excited flutter stirred in his chest. With a big shout he sprinted out of the entrance and into the crowd, running through the entire arena, from side to side to side, marveling at places and people alike, trying to strike up conversations, minding little when he was brushed off. He had never seen so many people his age gathered in one spot before. The village had been so small that the only one who wasn’t several years younger or older than him had been Yuno, and even the distribution of the Grimoires in the tower had been smaller, much smaller, a tiny family gathering compared to this giant, incredible crowd.

Voices reached his ears as he stood and watched the crowd around him, hushed and whispered but perfectly intelligible to his finely-tuned ears. They were talking about him, he realized. Whispering, gossiping, about his clothes, his appearance, his lack of a Grimoire. He let them talk. People had been whispering about him for all his life, and not once had he let it bring him down. He knew he was strong, and that was what mattered.

His eyes flitted around in search of Yuno, wondering if people were saying the same about him. He didn’t have to search long. Either Yuno had followed him or he had somehow instinctively found his way back to his best friend without noticing, because he was standing only a few feet away, looking immersed in his Grimoire and ignoring the rest. Asta smirked. Those people talking about him were in for a surprise, he thought. He had never seen a more powerful mage than Yuno, and truth be told he wasn’t sure there was one. Definitely not in this arena, anyway.

Something flapped in his face. Asta swatted it off, but within seconds it was back again, batting its wings in his face and moving so fast he could barely make out what it was beyond a shadowy blur. All around him people were yelping, shouting and fighting off similar shadows, some only struggling with one or two, others surrounded by whole clouds of them, swatting their arms this way and that and trying to chase all of them off at once. 

Well, not all around him. One was exempt.

Standing in the middle of the bizarre scene, Yuno turned this way and that, watching the flappy shadows with what looked like distant confusion. Asta thought he looked almost a little envious to be so completely ignored by the birds, maybe thinking this somehow meant he wasn’t as good as the rest or some other stupid thing like that, or maybe he secretly found them cute. But that look quickly faded when people’s voices got to them from all sides:

“Ow, ow, ow! What are these?”

“Get – off – me! Damn creatures! Get off!”

“The hell is up with these abominations?”

“Anti-birds,” said a voice from the crowd. “They’re only released at this time of the year. The less magic you have, the more they crowd to y–  _ ouch!  _ Son of a–!”

Yuno watched the scene impassively, a split second’s glint of relief crossing his eyes before he picked his Grimoire back up and pretended to have nothing to do with the chaos around him. Asta grinned to himself. There they had it, he really was amazing. That was his rival as he knew it!

Apparently other people had picked up on it too, because more and more glances and voices were directed his way. “Look at that guy over there,” someone shouted. “There’s not a single bird around him!”

All eyes turned to face Yuno’s way, wide and incredulous. “It’s true,” someone whispered in awe. “How does he do that?”

He’s just way more awesome than you, Asta wanted to shout, but before he got the chance someone burst out, “Hey, isn’t that the guy from the boonies? The one who got chosen by the four-leaf clover!”

“Did you just say…?”

“ _ Four-leaf? _ That guy?”

“No way!”

A rush of pride swooped over Asta. That was right. That was his Yuno. He was incredible, and these people were finally starting to realize it.

“That’s great!” he shouted with a proud, confident laugh. “This is the first step to one of us becoming Wizard King, Yuno!”

Some people gave incredulous gasps, others snorted and laughed. Asta didn’t even listen to them. He was still focusing on Yuno, who had finally looked up from his Grimoire again.

“I’ll show you!” he declared. “Behold my six months of training–  _ owww! _ What is wrong with these birds? Flap off already! Shoo!”

While he had been distracted, the anti-birds had crowded around his head, flapping in his face, sitting on his head and pulling at his cheeks as if trying to drag him off by his face. Giving an annoyed yell, Asta spun this way and that in a feeble attempt to shake them off, attracted even more of them, and started running blindly in the hopes of leaving the flapping cloud behind.

Until he suddenly ran into something solid. Something that was definitely not a bird.

A person? Oh, crap.

Asta bounced back, rubbing his forehead and putting on his best sheepish grin. “Ah, sorry!” he chirped. “I didn’t mean to bump into–”

His voice trailed off as he caught sight of the stranger’s face.

He was standing in front of a giant. Not one that was just tall, either; this man was positively huge in every sense of the word, and a man he was, for all intents and purposes. He was a mountain of muscle, hulking, broad-shouldered and looming, his beard as pitch-black as his hair, and he was glaring down at Asta with a scowl that screamed murder.

“You wanna die, brat?”

Asta shrank back. Not good. Bad. Very bad. Who the hell had he bumped into? He was totally screwed!

No, not so fast. The tall weirdo probably only looked this huge and terrifying because Asta had been caught off guard and startled out of his wits, but that didn’t mean he had to be a bad guy. Better try to be friendly. Nothing bad had ever come out of being nice.

“Man,” he said cheerfully, “you look really old for fifteen! Just what the hell have you gone through to get that old?”

The stranger stared at him for a beat of silence. Asta stared back with the vague notion that he might have made a mistake.

A large hand grabbed his head, crushing his skull in its vice-like grip. “I guess you really are ready to die, huh?”

Yes, Asta thought, he had definitely screwed up. Big time! No, even bigger time! He was doomed–

“Captain Yami, there you are! What are you doing?”

The hand temporarily loosened its grip on Asta’s head. Asta gave a gasp of relief and instantly found his skull being crushed again, even more painfully than before. He gave a yelp and struggled, trying and failing to look at the man who had spoken for help.

“Just putting a brat out of his misery,” the giant – Captain Yami? – growled, lifting Asta up by the head. “Whaddya want?”

The second man made a noise that was somewhere between helplessness and exasperation. “We can’t have a captain killing a candidate,” he replied. “What are you doing here in the first place?”

“Got lost.”

“For crying out loud…”

Asta struggled and dangled his legs. “Hey – I’m – sorry – please – let – me – go…”

The hand threatened to crush his skull as narrowed eyes glared into his own. “What did you say?”

“Captain! Let him go, we don’t have the time to go around killing kids!” The second man sounded increasingly frustrated. “You’re needed up there, the exam’s about to start!”

“How soon?”

“About  _ now! _ Come on…”

The hand hesitated, then Asta found himself roughly dropped to the ground as the hulking giant turned on his heel and followed the second, much slimmer and smaller man towards the nearest door. “Lucked out this time, kid,” he grumbled over his shoulder. “You better treasure that life you got to keep, or else I’ll kill you.”

Asta opened his mouth and closed it, but the next moment everything was drowned in a chorus of voices. He turned around to take a glance at whatever had started this commotion, but even as he turned he caught a voice over the general murmur:

“Hey… weren’t those two Finral Roulacase and Yami Sukehiro… from the order of the Black Bulls?”

\---

It was starting.

A chill ran down Asta’s spine as he gazed up into the tree that had manifested itself out of thin air, gnarled roots creeping down into the arena to stretch out towards the examinees. So this was the power of the man who was closest to the Wizard King, he thought. If he wanted to become the strongest one day, he would have to get up to this level of power.

One of the roots crept down into his reach, producing a broomstick out of thin air to place it into his hands. All around him people were picking up theirs, taking them from the roots that quickly recoiled and disappeared into thin air again.

“Your first test,” William Vangeance declared, “will be to take these brooms you’ve been given and fly. Anyone who can control their magic should have an instinctive grasp on it. This is the most basic means of transportation for a mage, so if you can’t do it… you won’t be worth a second look here.” He smiled under his mask. “From this alone we can tell how well you understand the workings of your magic.”

It didn’t need any more than that. Asta had already climbed on his broomstick, holding it between his thighs and trying to kick off into the air. He could do this. He didn’t know how, but he was sure he could pull this off. Even without a Grimoire, it had to work.

He jumped half a foot into the air and landed stumblingly on his feet.

Asta stared at his broomstick, then at the people around. How did they do this? Most of the others weren’t flying too well, but at least they were flying. Some were floating a foot or two above the ground, others were being spun around in midair, others were zooming wildly in every direction without any idea where they were going or how to get down. And then there was Yuno, standing gracefully on his broomstick, floating high above everyone else, gazing down into the arena with a distant look on his face as if he was already royalty. How did he manage that? He really was incredible, damn it!

But even if his voice could reach him from down here, Asta wouldn’t ask him. Like hell he was asking his rival for help. He’d just have to use his tried old strategy, simply keep trying and trying and trying as long as it took for him to figure this out.

He could do this. Like hell he was giving up. Not after coming this far.

With a shout he started running with the broomstick and took a great leap, prepared to take flight, prepared to start floating and chasing after Yuno, no matter how little magic he had. His magic was willpower and determination. And how that worked he knew, and it was all he needed.

But he didn’t take flight. He skidded and stumbled and crash-landed on the ground, nearly face-planting one of the arena walls and catching himself just in time. People around him snickered. He didn’t care. He would keep trying. Over and over and over. He could do this.

He could do this.

Really.

Asta turned around and started running again, taking a leap and crashing into the ground. He tried to jump on the spot. He tried to throw his broomstick and follow. He tried to climb onto a crack in the wall and kick off from there. Over and over he fell onto the floor, dusting himself off, ignoring his scars and scratches and bruises and trying again, thinking of a way he hadn’t tried yet, a way that might work. He wasn’t giving up yet. There had to be a way. Everyone could do this, at least a little bit. He just hadn’t figured out how yet.

_ But then again everyone else had a Grimoire, and he didn’t. _

He shook it off. So what! Who cared if he had a Grimoire or not? Everyone had some magic! And he couldn’t lose here! He had to keep up with Yuno, he was going to be Wizard King!

_ If Yuno even cared about their rivalry… _

What was that about? Of course he cared. This was Yuno after all, the same Yuno who had once promised him, so many years ago…

_ Did he remember? _

_ Cut it. _

Asta shook his head. Now wasn’t the time. He could think about all of that later, when he had figured out how to fly on a broom. That was the most important thing right now. Worrying could wait.

“Oh hey, you’re funny!”

Asta paused in his struggles, turning to look at the boy who had appeared next to him with a wink and a flashy pose. “My name is Sekke,” he introduced himself, followed by an odd conceited sound that was probably meant to be a laugh of some kind. “And who are you?”

“I’m Asta…”

“Struggling, are you?” Sekke made that weird laugh-y noise again and kicked off the ground on his broomstick. “Look here, it’s pretty easy! Relax a little and you’ll get it.”

“Dammit, that’s nice,” Asta groaned as he watched Sekke fly through the air, zooming around from side to side with that smug laugh of his. He looked back at his own broomstick.  _ Relax, huh… _

All right! Then he would relax with all his power!

But nothing happened. No matter what he did, what he tried, his broomstick didn’t lift him a single inch off the ground. Relaxing didn’t help any more than running and jumping had. He was glued to the earth, doomed to watching all the others float around above his head like it was the easiest thing in the world.

_ If you can’t do it, you won’t be worth a second look here. _

Asta pushed down the thought. Not yet. It wasn’t over yet. He might have completely lost here, but that didn’t mean he was out yet. He just had to be amazing at all the other tasks, and the Magic Knights would be fighting to have him.

_ If a miracle happened and he suddenly learned to do magic. Otherwise… he was out. _

What the hell was he thinking about? This was already a miracle! The simple fact that he was in here in the first place was a miracle! He had made it to this city thanks to a miracle! Why couldn’t another miracle happen to follow it up?

_ Now of all times? Really? _

_ But what if it didn’t? _

“Shut up!” he roared, not even caring that people were staring at him. “Shut the hell up, thoughts! Get outta my head! I’m gonna be Wizard King!”

He had come this far. Like hell he was admitting defeat now.

If he tried hard enough, he still had a chance.

But nothing worked. He couldn’t cast spells at a brick wall. He couldn’t hit a paper target floating in the air. He couldn’t form anything and he couldn’t make a plant sprout from a seed. No matter what he tried, no matter how hard he tried, nothing worked, and before he knew it the time for all four tasks was up, and everyone was lined up again to watch William Vangeance explain the next and final task.

“This test,” he said, “will be a spar. Pair up into teams of two and then, as you are called, duel with your partner. You can use your Grimoires if you want, you should have learned a few attack spells by now. A Magic Knight’s work is to fight, so show us exactly what you’re made of.”

Asta tensed up. A fight. He had to fight someone. He had to fight against someone’s magic, and he had no magic at all.

But… if there was something he could do, it was this.

He might not have any magic, but he was strong. And fast. He wouldn’t be stuck trying to do something he didn’t know how to do here. Instead of casting spells, he would simply rely on his muscles and instincts and fight his opponent bare-handed.

Then he needed someone strong… so strong that he’d impress the captains if he defeated them…

“Asta!” Sekke’s voice called from behind his shoulder. “Will you spar against me?”

He turned around, surprised and delighted at the same time. A perfect opponent. “Sekke!” he burst out. “You’re gonna do it? Thank you!”

They stood side by side, waiting just as William Vangeance spoke up again, observing the crowd from behind his mask. “The fights will continue until one surrenders or is incapacitated,” he said. “We have got healers here, so fight like your life depends on it. And with that–” he gazed expectantly into the arena– “may the first pair step forward.”

Asta and Sekke exchanged a glance and stepped out into the open before the others could make up their minds.

“Okay!” Asta proclaimed as he took in the crowd around him, his eyes briefly lingering on Yuno, meeting his gaze for the tiniest part of a second in a silent challenge. “Let’s fight it out like men!”

Sekke stepped close. A hand came to rest on Asta’s shoulder as he leaned down, his expression completely changed, as if he had just turned into a whole different person.

“You don’t have to keep trying anymore,” he whispered. “You’re already finished, you misplaced street rat.”

Asta opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

“I’ll enter the Magic Knights and go easy enough on you to keep you whole,” Sekke’s voice reverberated in his head, the words making only faint sense, as if he was speaking another language. “And then you can go back to whatever barn you came from and spend the rest of your pathetic days where you belong.”

Asta froze. His entire body felt cold, freezing, his mind filled with an icy mist that wrapped him in a daze. He barely noticed as Sekke walked back into his position. He barely noticed the eyes resting on them both, curious, fearful and expectant. Nothing seemed real until Vangeance’s voice cut through the fog, loud and clear and very much  _ there _ .

“Ready? Start!”

_ I’m gonna beat this guy. _

It was the only thing on Asta’s mind, the only thing he could think or feel. He would defeat Sekke. Fair and square, with his fists. No matter what magic he had to face. He’d do it, and if it was the last thing he did.

“No holding back!” Sekke shouted into the arena, stretching out his hands as something shiny and metallic started to manifest around him. “Let’s do this, Asta!”

He would beat this guy. He would beat him.

A semi-transparent bronze sphere enveloped Sekke from head to toe, holes poking out of it on each side in an odd-shaped pattern. People were whispering again, about him this time, marveling at his magic and praising his skill.

“Him against that guy,” said someone from the distance. “What an unfair fight.”

“Dammit, I wanted to fight that kid too. Would’ve been an easy win.”

“Look at him, he doesn’t even have a Grimoire! Why the hell is he here?”

“He can’t even use normal magic?”

“He’s delusional.”

“What is he doing here?”

“No one will want him in their order. He might as well accept that.”

“Come on, Asta!” Sekke shouted over the voices. “Don’t hold back, bring it on!”

Bring it on, huh.

All right, then.

“Okay,” Asta said quietly. “Here I go.”

Momentarily closing his eyes, he took a giant leap and threw himself at the wall of bronze. Something flashed in front of his eyes. He collided with the metal, punching it as hard as he could. Something hot and sticky trickled over his face, his arm, his hand. He barely felt it. Without hesitation he staggered back and threw himself at the sphere again. Another flash. He hit one of the holes this time. His knuckles connected with something. From a distance Sekke’s voice reached his ears, hissing a pained curse. Another one like that. He had to land another one. And then–

There was another flash and a bang. And suddenly everything was too real.

Every part of his body hurt. His face. His chest. His arm. He couldn’t move his hand. He couldn’t move at all. Was something broken? It couldn’t be that bad… he just had to get up… he’d managed to get a hit… not… yet…

Faces leaned over him, horror-struck and worried. A voice rang over the wall of noises, distant yet loud and clear and painfully familiar.

“ _Asta!_ ”

He tried to open his eyes, but they were glued shut with blood. He tried to shout back, but his voice came out in a rasp, helpless and lost.

“Yu…no…”

Then everything went dark.


	9. Wounded Warrior

“ _Asta!_ ”

The shout escaped from Yuno’s lips before he could stop it. It rang faintly in his ears, frantic yet removed and distant like all other sounds around him.

Time had stopped. His eyes were locked on Asta’s form lying spread-eagled on the ground, scarred, bloodstained and unmoving. Everything else had faded from view. His very breath and heartbeat were frozen inside his body, anxiously waiting for a sign from Asta, a movement, a word, anything to give away that he was still alive.

Images flashed through his head, memories, distant yet unforgotten. Asta lying sprawled on the frozen ground, blood seeping through his clothes from a thousand wounds, coloring the snow a bright, vivid shade of red. His left eye black and swollen, his tooth missing, his breath coming in gasps even as he grinned, handing Yuno his pendant back…

_Not again…_

“Asta,” he whispered, and the very word seemed to cut into his lungs. Breathing was painful. He gave a gasp as if he was the one lying there bleeding, and yet he whispered the name again, barely caring about his pain, his voice more raspy and shaky and crumbling than ever.

_Please, please be alive._

All around him the world started to stir. Asta raised his head and immediately collapsed back down with a wince. Someone ran up to him, holding him down. Voices rang through his head. “A healer! Get a healer!”

Unblinking, Yuno watched as a pair of mages carefully floated Asta up in the air, carrying him from the arena and out of sight while a voice announced the end of the match. Part of him wanted to follow. A small, soft-hearted part of him wanted to break his stoic façade completely and run after his friend, see for himself how he was doing, find out if he would be all right, even if he could do nothing to help him except stand by his side and wait until he got better. He needed to be with his friend. His family. His inspiration.

But if he turned and left now, what would it all be for? What would happen to all that training, all the work, the journey, the promises? Everything would go to waste if he left now. He needed to see this exam to the end. For Asta, too. He would win his duel for him and get a spot in the Magic Knights good enough for the two of them. That was what Asta would want. If he found out that Yuno had left the exam for his sake, he’d kill him.

_I already failed to protect him. I can’t fail him again._

Yuno shook off the thought. This had been different from back then, he told himself. This had been a one-on-one duel. He wouldn’t have been allowed to step in and protect Asta, even if he might be strong enough this time.

But… had it been right to let him come here in the first place?

If Yuno hadn’t let him follow to this city… no, that had been inevitable. The alternative would have been leaving Asta to wander the wild with no food and no idea how to get back home. But if he hadn’t helped him into this exam… if he hadn’t vouched for him when they hadn’t wanted to let him in without a Grimoire…

Back then, hadn’t he vowed to never let Asta get hurt like this again? Hadn’t he promised himself to get stronger for this very reason, so that no one he cared for would ever end up like this? And yet here he was, standing on the side, unable to do anything as he watched Asta injure himself over to keep a promise he had made with him all these years ago.

This needed to stop. He had to keep to his words. Asta wasn’t his rival anymore. He couldn’t help him keep up their rivalry. When all this was over he would go and tell him that. He would find the infirmary or wherever he was now, wait until he woke up, and tell him the truth. _You don’t have to try to keep our promise anymore. I’ll do it for you. Don’t worry._ Plain and simple.

Yes, that was what he would do. Later. When he was officially accepted as a Magic Knight. No need to think about this conversation for the time being, there were other things to focus on at the moment.

For now he’d make sure to make the most powerful impression he could.

\---

_Impressive._

The feeling shot through Yami’s head before he could bother to stop it. His eyes were still resting on the kid lying sprawled on the ground, bruised and battered and bloody, his chest heaving in gasps before suddenly slowing its movements to a near-standstill. It was that boy who had bumped into him earlier, he recognized. A weird kid. He hadn’t sensed the slightest bit of magic from him, and that was a phenomenon he had never encountered before, not in all his close to three decades of life. And sure enough, the brat seemed to have no magic, none at all, zero, not even bothering to pull out his Grimoire when that irritating, smug laughing bastard had whipped out his full defense…

Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen a Grimoire on the boy in the first place. Did he even have one?

No magic and no Grimoire. What was a kid like that doing at the Magic Knights exam? More importantly, why on earth did he seem to have seriously thought he could beat some guy with such powerful magic with his bare fists?

A terrible pick for a Knight, really. But… interesting.

“Captain Yami?”

Finral’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Slightly irritated to be interrupted like that, he turned, glaring at his henchman in unveiled annoyance. “What?”

“Everything all right? You’ve been staring at that poor boy…” Finral gestured down. “It can’t be that you’re worried, can i–”

“In your dreams!”

Finral smiled sheepishly and made an apologetic gesture. Yami grumbled at him, sent another glare his way for good measure, and turned back to the brat who was now being carried to the infirmary. And then he saw what Finral had meant. Without realizing it he had stood up, stepping towards the railing in an attempt to see more of the scene.

Not bad, he thought. Really not bad.

“I’m not worried,” he muttered, more to himself than to Finral next to him. “But that kid… He ain’t shit at magic, but he sure has some guts.”

\---

The Golden Dawn.

Yuno stood proud as he accepted his welcome, stepping out of the way and walking off to the side to make room for the evaluation of the next examinee. He could still sense the eyes of the Golden Dawn’s leader resting on him, following him from behind that mask, watching, observing, as if expecting him to conjure up another tornado at any second. It didn’t bother him too much for the moment. Right now, before it was time to leave with his order, he had other things to do.

“Excuse me,” he said to one of the healers standing on the side of the arena, watching over the groups of excited, relieved, downcast and frustrated examinees standing in the light of the setting sun. “Could you tell me where the infirmary is?”

She looked at him in surprise, as if half expecting him to reveal an injury he’d been hiding for the past few hours, then realization dawned on her face, and her eyes softened in understanding. “Of course, dear,” she said in a motherly voice. “Was that poor boy who got hurt so badly your friend?”

It took all of Yuno’s self-restraint not to grab her shoulders and ask her how he was, if he was awake. But her overly familial tone made him uncomfortable, and her question was closer to home than anything he’d allow from a stranger. So he only turned his head away and shrugged, and she seemed to take the hint and quietly led him the way.

Yuno followed her through one of the archways in the wall and down a corridor, and then suddenly he found himself standing in a small curtained room. Standing in the middle of it was a makeshift bed, with a figure lying on top of it that he would have recognized from a mile away.

Asta was barely recognizable. Every part of him that wasn’t scarred and bruised and burned was covered in bandages, one of his arms in a cast, a patch over one of his eyes. He didn’t respond when Yuno stepped inside, hovering hesitantly in the doorframe and waiting for permission to enter from the healers inside.

“Come on in if ya want,” said a shaggy-haired man rummaging through a series of drawers, “but I’m warnin’ ya, boy, he’s still out cold. Ain’t gonna wake up for some time, by the looks of it. He’s lucky for makin’ it out alive.”

Yuno nodded quietly and slipped inside, barely daring to make a noise. Asta didn’t stir in his sleep, but his chest was rising and falling in a gentle rhythm, calm and comforting after the bloodied, ripped-up mess he had been earlier. Yuno matched his own breath to that rhythm, deep and slow, as he stepped up to the bed and bent over Asta’s peacefully sleeping face.

“Asta?” he whispered so softly it was almost lost over the deep breaths.

No answer. Asta didn’t even stir. Of course not.

He should tell him, he thought. He needed to tell him everything he had resolved to tell him earlier. That he was in the Golden Dawn now. He would work towards becoming Wizard King. Asta didn’t need to worry about their rivalry anymore. The most important part was that he found himself a job and stayed safe and didn’t go around injuring himself again, especially not for promises he had made to Yuno. Yuno would take care of the rest. He’d keep their promise and set Asta free from its ties.

But what would be the point of saying all that now? Asta was still asleep, he wouldn’t hear a word. Granted, Yuno could always ask the healer to relay the message to him, embarrassing as it was and as much as he hated telling personal things to strangers. Or he could always write a note and leave it for Asta to read. But that didn’t feel right. This message was something so important and highly personal that there was no other way to deliver it but in person.

Tearing his gaze from Asta’s face, Yuno turned towards the healer. “May I stay here till he wakes up?”

The healer looked at him for a moment, as if trying to read his thoughts, then he made a gruff sound and gestured vaguely towards the chair standing a few feet away from the bed. Yuno muttered a thanks, pulled the chair up to Asta’s bed, and sat down next to him, letting his eyes rest on his face once more.

Maybe he’d sit here for hours, he mused. Maybe all night. He had no idea if they would even let him stay here that long, but he’d stay as long as he could. He needed to pass this message to Asta. At least he needed to try. Otherwise he wouldn’t truly be able to be at peace with himself.

Time lost all proportion. Yuno didn’t know how long he spent sitting there, doing nothing but staring at Asta’s face, watching him, waiting for any signs of him waking up. At some point dusk fell and it grew dark, but he couldn’t pinpoint when or how. He simply set there, forgetting about the world, waiting, waiting, waiting.

He had no idea how long he had been in that seat when suddenly the door burst open, and the world started to move again.

“Excuse me!” shouted a soft female voice, sounding not much older than he was, if at all. “Um… A-Are you the new Golden Dawn recruit, by any chance?”

Yuno blinked, slowly zooming out of his dreamlike state and returning back to reality. Asta was still sleeping. With a heavy sigh Yuno tore himself away from his figure, turning towards the girl who was still standing breathlessly in the door.

“Yeah,” he said unwillingly, not making eye contact. “What’s up?”

“Oh, thank goodness!” The girl stumbled inside, her ginger hair waving behind her, oddly bright in the dim light of the single lamp in the room. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere… Hurry up, Sir Klaus is furious with you already!”

Yuno stared at her, momentarily wondering who on earth Klaus was or why he was furious with him or what on earth this girl was supposed to want when it hit him. It must be late in the evening by now. Everyone else was probably already gone. His order must have wanted to leave for their headquarters ages ago, and he had disappeared on them without saying a word.

“Sorry,” he said, glancing back down at Asta, half considering waking him but not quite having the heart. “I had something to do here. Can you just tell him I’ll–”

The girl shook her head, her tone turning audibly desperate. “No, I’m very sorry!” she said in the same frantic voice Sister Lily sometimes used when things grew too stressful. “You’ll have to come with me, the others lost their patience an hour ago!”

Damn it. Yuno looked back at Asta’s face, feeling a stab of regret twisting in his chest. He had wanted to see him wake up. He had wanted to talk to him. But there was no time for that now. He would have to resort to relaying a message, scribbling down a note, anything.

“Excuse me,” he said to the healer. “Do you have paper and a–”

“You can’t!” the girl interrupted him. “Believe me, I’m so sorry and I wish you could stay with your friend longer, but this is an emergency… um…” She looked up at him with wide, gentle green eyes. “Please?”

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

Giving a slight sigh that betrayed only a fraction of his real frustration and disappointment, Yuno rose from his chair, pushing it back and leaning over Asta’s face one last time. It was still calm and peaceful, showing no signs of waking up anytime soon.

He really wished he could have told him today. But it looked like that would have to wait, even if he would make sure not to let it wait too long. He’d be back as soon as possible. That was a promise.

Giving a faint smile, he brushed a streak of tangled hair from Asta’s face and turned away. “Take care, Asta.”

Then he nodded at the girl and hurried towards the corridor. “Let’s go.”

\---

It was dark when Asta woke up. So dark that, for barely a few moments, he couldn’t help wondering if he had opened his eyes at all.

For a second he had no idea where he was, no recollection how he had come here. Then it all came back to him. Right, the Magic Knights exam. His duel against Sekke. The explosions. Pain… blood… Yuno’s voice…

“Yuno–”

“Here you stay, dear.” A hand caught him as he tried to sit up, gently forcing him back down on the mattress. “You only just woke up, you’re in no fit state to go anywhere yet. What’s the matter?”

Asta tried to turn his head, and from the corner of his eye he caught the motherly face of a woman leaning over him with a kind smile, dressed in what he recognized faintly as the clothes of a healer. So he was at some healing place right now. But where was everyone else?

“Excuse me, ma’am!” he burst out, coughing and clearing his throat as his voice came out raspy. “What happened to the Magic Knights exam?”

The woman’s eyes went wide, then she gave him a look of kind sympathy. “The exam? Why, dear, it’s long over. You slept through the whole afternoon and half the night, everyone’s gone home.”

“Gone?” Asta repeated in disbelief, his eyes flitting around as if looking for some proof that he hadn’t slept that long and she was joking. “Wait… Where’s Yuno? I mean… the tall handsome jerk with the four-leaf Grimoire?” He resisted the urge to sit up again. “What happened to him?”

“Him? Oh, my poor dear, you should have seen it.” The healer smiled. “He crushed a noble in his duel, and when it was his turn to be evaluated all the captains wanted to choose him! He went into the Golden Dawn, of course. A four-leaf… What an impressive young man!”

The Golden Dawn… If Asta remembered it right, that had been the strongest order. The one with the leader that was second only to the Wizard King himself.

He smiled. That was his Yuno.

He was gone now, of course. Asta doubted he’d be able to see him anytime soon. Damn it, he had wanted to see him. Now the gap between them had grown again…

Come to think of it, there was another question. Hovering in his mind, fluttering anxiously, waiting to be asked yet afraid of the answer at the same time.

He swallowed, but his voice sounded like a dry croak again. “And…”

The healer’s eyes widened. “And?”

“And…” Asta swallowed again. “And… me?”

There was a moment’s silence. The healer’s face turned sad, and Asta knew what the answer would be before she opened her mouth.

“No offers.”


	10. Lost in the Beginning

No offers. Nothing.

Asta stared up at the ceiling, the healer’s words repeating in his head for what felt like the millionth time. It was still dark outside. He had lost all track of time. His body felt numb and heavy, impossible to move, his wounds temporarily quieted down with pain-killing spells.

He almost wished they weren’t. If his pain hadn’t been numbed then at least he’d be able to feel  _ something _ , some sort of sensation, some kind of emotion to distract him from the heavy thoughts circling in his head. He didn’t want to be lying here. He wanted to get up, walk around, do something. Asta hated standing still. For all his life he had always been in motion, steadily pushing forward, and nothing had ever frustrated him more than lying flat on his back and being able to do nothing.

How much longer till he could get up? He didn’t know. His body wasn’t telling him anything. Or if it did, he couldn’t feel it. He had tried to move, but his limbs weren’t responding. The only thing he could do was stare at the ceiling and try to ignore the hidden thoughts that he had been pushing back in his head for years and years and that had now awakened in his mind with a roar.

He had failed the Magic Knight exam. Yuno had succeeded. And he had failed.

What now?

The simplest solution, the most Asta-like approach would be to wait the year and try again. Use the extra time to work harder, get stronger, steel his body against stupid, unfair injuries like this one, and then return to the arena and show everyone who was boss. He hadn’t been strong enough this time. Going by his old attitude, he would simply had to get even stronger.

But… would it help?

His body had been so strong already. He had been the strongest man in Hage since the age of thirteen, able to beat even grown men at arm-wrestling with no effort. He had been the fastest runner, the highest climber. In terms of raw physical strength no one had ever kept up with him.

And here all that power hadn’t helped him at all.

How much stronger would he have to get? How many push-ups would he have to do, how many laps would he have to run until he grew strong enough to withstand such powerful magic attacks? He still had no Grimoire and no powers. How far could a strong body get him if he still couldn’t use the slightest bit of magic?

Next year would be the same, he thought. No matter how hard he trained this whole year, unless a miracle occurred and he still got a Grimoire after all, the next exam would be a repetition of this year all over again. No, he thought, he probably wouldn’t be able to get in there in the first place. This year Yuno had vouched for him. If he went back by himself next time, who would be there to tell the examiners that he really was old enough to take the test? He could try to look old enough, of course… but looks could be deceiving. They wouldn’t believe him, would they?

Maybe… no. He wouldn’t finish that thought. He wouldn’t allow himself to finish it. That thought was banned, off limits, forbidden. He couldn’t start thinking that way now, or else he’d give up. He couldn’t give up now. Not after all these years. He had promised himself that he would keep trying. He had promised Yuno.

_ You are not my rival. _

Yuno’s face flashed through his head, cold and distant, his eyes blank and expressionless as he turned around and stepped away from Asta as if they had never known each other at all. Something shot through his chest, sharp and cold and acutely painful. A realization.

Back then… had Yuno meant those words? He had looked like he did. His face had betrayed nothing, no regret, no compassion. Yuno had become so distant as they grew up, growing aloof and quiet and impossible to read as his powers improved beyond the impossible and Asta stayed powerless, forever the same. Had he started to look down on him? Had he been annoyed with his stubbornness when things were obviously hopeless? Had Asta… disappointed him?

No way. Their promise had been forever ago. He didn’t think Yuno still remembered.

But this was Yuno, he tried to tell himself. His childhood friend. His other half. They had always been together, done everything together, even as Yuno grew stoic and distant. Yuno had let him tag along to the city. Yuno had smiled when he had let him come along, raced him half the way, competed over who could get the most food with him, dreamed of the big city and made a bet over who would see it first with him. Yuno had vouched for him to let him enter the exam. Why should he do all that if he didn’t see Asta as a rival anymore? Why should he do that if he didn’t care?

Well, maybe he had just done this to be nice. Out of friendship, or loyalty, or whatever it was. Or maybe– and he hated that thought, hated himself for thinking of it– maybe Yuno had just let him tag along to finally prove to him that he couldn’t do this, once and for all.

He should be angry. He should be furious at Yuno for possibly doing that, but even as he imagined it, Asta couldn’t bring himself to feel so much as annoyed. Because somewhere, deep down, in a corner of his mind he had always shut away and locked behind bars, a voice kept whispering that it had been the right thing to do.

Maybe everyone was right, after all. Maybe he was no good. Maybe he couldn’t use magic because he was just that weak and pathetic, and he should just give up on his dream.

Yuno didn’t expect anything from him anymore, anyway.

\---

“Um… Excuse me?”

Yuno’s eyes returned into focus, zooming back in on reality from their distant, glazed-over state. With a blink and a barely-suppressed sigh he cut off his train of thoughts to turn and look at the origin of the voice, the same ginger-haired girl who had so anxiously dragged him away from Asta’s sleeping form earlier. Just great. He knew it hadn’t been her fault, but he still couldn’t think of a person he was less motivated to talk to right now.

“What is it?” he asked quietly, without making eye contact for a second longer than necessary.

The girl shrank slightly on her broom, and despite his annoyance Yuno couldn’t help feeling faintly sorry for her. “Um…” she began, her voice almost lost over the wind rushing in his ears. “I only wanted to tell you… I’m very sorry for dragging you away so roughly… and… um…”

Oh no, not an awkward apology. That was just about the last thing Yuno needed, along with the reminder of everything that had happened earlier. He just hoped he could cut this conversation short, as short as possible. He didn’t want to talk. “It’s fine.”

“R-Really? But you seemed–”

“It’s fine,” Yuno repeated mechanically. “You were just following orders.”

The girl nodded with a tiny, shaky smile.

Silence. Yuno continued to stare straight ahead. There was no sound from the girl, and for a moment he almost thought she had returned to her spot on the other side of their seniors.

“Was that boy your friend?”

The question caught Yuno off guard. For a second his composure slipped out of his grasp, and he turned his head, blinking at the girl next to him in open, vulnerable surprise.

“What?”

“The boy in the infirmary, um…” The girl smiled awkwardly, giving him an uncomfortably kind-hearted, compassionate look. “He was your friend, wasn’t he?”

Yuno turned his head away and chose to say nothing. Some part of his body that he couldn’t pin down started hurting faintly, as if he had lost a limb or an organ and there was now an empty space where something used to be.

“He really was,” the girl went on. “I’m so sorry to hear what happened to him, I have healing powers, if we’d had more time I could have helped… but I was not at the exam myself, and by the time I arrived everyone was in a hurry and…”

Her voice trailed off. Yuno continued to stare ahead in silence.

“Do you… not want to talk?”

_ About time you caught the hint, _ Yuno thought without saying a word.

“All right then,” the girl said, and there was neither disappointment nor malice in her voice. “I’ll leave you alone. But despite everything I hope we can work well together in the future! I… um… My name is Mimosa Vermillion, by the way. I come from the royal family. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

Yuno sighed and turned his head. The girl was still looking at him with those wide green eyes of hers, her face kind and gentle, her hair flying after her in the wind. She seemed like a nice person, he thought. At least she had manners. And as soon as he answered her, she’d hopefully leave her alone.

“I’m Yuno,” he said, unsmiling but at least managing to meet her eyes fully this time. “Just Yuno. And likewise.”

Mimosa smiled and flew back to her post. But every once in a while, whenever he temporarily returned from his hazy thoughts and the worries about Asta, he could feel her gazing at him from the side with the eyes of a concerned sister.

\---

“All good,” the healer said as he looked Asta up and down once more, examining each and every one of his rapidly healing scars and bruises. “Guess ya can move around normally now, kid. Yer good to go.”

Asta walked back and forth, moving his arms up and down to examine his movements. Sure enough, he seemed to be moving fine. Nothing hurt anymore, and he could stand up, sit down and pace around the room with no more difficulty.

“Feelin’ all right?” the healer asked him with a self-satisfied grin.

“Yeah,” Asta said in a voice that was entirely too quiet to be his, but for some reason he didn’t feel like being louder anytime soon. “I guess I’m fine.”

A hand hit him hard on the back, patting him so roughly he started to cough. “Grats, kiddo! Ya can go now. Just don’ work too hard yet, son. Don’ wanna see ya hurt again!”

Asta nodded. “Okay. Thank you.”

“You gonna be fine?” the healer asked him, accompanying him out of the infirmary and up to the side door of the now-deserted arena. “Whatcha gonna do now? Go home?”

Asta stopped in his tracks.

What  _ was _ he going to do?

\---

The street was empty when the little boy came back to rejoin his siblings, empty and deserted without a trace of their familiar faces.

He didn’t know how it had happened. All he had wanted to do was look at that musician standing there in that small alleyway, wearing such an amazing costume and playing such beautiful tunes. Before he fully knew what was going on he had strayed from the path, only for a moment, to stop in front of that pretty young lady playing a cheerful song he felt like he had heard somewhere before.

He had only meant to leave for a second and come back right away. No need to tell anybody. They’d still be there when he came back.

Or so he thought.

“Sister?” he shouted into the street, venturing further and further around the corner. “Sister, where are you?”

But no one answered him.


	11. Searching

_ Dear everyone, _

_ Asta and I arrived safely in the city. We both took the Magic Knight exam, and I made it into the Golden Dawn, the highest-ranking squad. I’ll be busy with my duties from now on, so I won’t visit anytime soon, but I’ll send you some of my pay as soon as I have it. Use it however you like. I’ll tell you more when I have time. Take care. _

_ Yuno _

Yuno’s hand hovered over the paper, pen still held loosely between his fingers. A short letter, he thought, but covering all the necessary information for the time being. There was simply nothing else he could tell them for now.

Well, almost nothing.

The tip of his pen was a hair’s breadth from the paper, mere seconds away from adding another line to the end of his letter, a comment, a question, he didn’t know. The truth, perhaps.  _ P.S. Asta didn’t make it into the Magic Knights. He got so badly injured I couldn’t talk to him before leaving, so I don’t know if he’s planning to come back to you. Please expect him back and tell me when he returns. _

He could write it, all too easily. There was enough space on the paper. He had enough ink to spare. If he just got himself to do it, there was nothing stopping him. But…

But… why should he do it? He had no reason to. Asta would probably write home himself and tell them everything, including the things Yuno couldn’t tell. And if he didn’t, all the more reason not to tell. The others would only start worrying unnecessarily when there was no real reason to worry. Asta was Asta. He would be fine, and in due time he would report back home on his own, whether he actually returned to Hage or not.

And besides, it felt uncomfortable to show them how much he cared.

He’d just have to wait some time, he thought. Sooner or later he would hear from Asta, either from home or from somewhere else. And then he would tell him what he had meant to say that day. He would tell him and hope that, sooner or later, Asta would listen to him and understand.

All he had to do was wait until that happened. However long it took.

\---

Where to now?

Asta walked aimlessly down the streets, the marvel and awe from a few days ago faded into nothing. He had no idea where he was or where his feet were taking him, and he had even less of an idea where he was even trying to go. Home, perhaps? That should be the safest option, he thought. He did miss all the other guys, even if it would never be the same without Yuno.

But home would also mean abandoning the dream of becoming Wizard King, and he wasn’t ready for that. He didn’t want to retrace his steps and give up, settling for a quiet, boring life in Hage while Yuno did his duty as a Magic Knight and eventually reached the dream that had originally been Asta’s. His entire life for nearly the past decade had been circling around that dream. He couldn’t quit just yet. Even if, deep down, he knew he could never make it without a miracle.

Besides, he thought, and he knew it was probably an excuse, he didn’t know the way home. On the road here it had been Yuno who had memorized the way, and Asta had simply followed his footsteps and instructions; he didn’t think he could make it back just from that memory. At least not without a map, and a map was something he would need to buy, and he had no money. Before even thinking of returning home he would have to earn enough money to buy a map… and then he would need food and drink too, and…

A job. He needed a job.

Asta stopped in the middle of the street. That was it. Before he could think of doing anything else, he needed to work. And a place to stay. At least till he had enough money to travel home, and then he could still decide what he wanted to do. He could postpone the long-term decision. He knew what to do!

“I’ve got it!” he burst out with a renewed energy, startling a group of pigeons and making people stare. A few voices shouted at him to shut up, but he barely heard them. Finally. Finally he had a task again. Finally he knew what to do.

Sprinting through the streets, he searched every door and every window for signs of a shop, or an inn, or any business that might hire him. Any open door he saw he would burst right through; and everywhere, over and over, he would shout the same question.

“Excuse me! Are you hiring?”

\---

Wherever he asked, nothing.

With a heavy sigh Asta slumped against a wall, letting his gaze roam through the darkening street. He had done nothing but run from store to store and house to house all day, asking for jobs everywhere, but to no avail. Most people he had asked had not even bothered to hear him out, unceremoniously ushering him out the door for disrupting their businesses or flat-out kicking him out. The few who had actually listened had quickly driven him off when they heard that he couldn’t use magic, flatly telling him they had no room for a worker who couldn’t keep up with their magical speed and efficiency. Now the sun was setting, and he had no job and nowhere to stay for the night.

The shops were closed for the day. Inns and taverns were still open, but he couldn’t think of a single one he hadn’t visited yet, not as far as the eye could see. And he must have made his way through the entire city by now. Where was he, anyway? Was he anywhere near the stadium, or in a completely different part? And did it even matter?

Well, he wasn’t giving up yet. He would keep walking in search of an inn he hadn’t tried yet. And if he still hadn’t found anything by the time they closed for the night he would find himself a place to sleep, and then tomorrow the search could go on. He’d find something, sooner or later. He just had to hang in there.

Now which way hadn’t he gone yet? Not that one, he had come from there. The one on the right looked faintly familiar too, but now that all the shops were closed and the street looked empty he couldn’t be too sure. What about that street on the left? Damn it, he had no idea. These streets looked all the same. He wished he could simply go straight on, but there was nothing there except for a tiny narrow alleyway that seemed to be leading nowhere; he definitely wouldn’t be able to find himself a job there. It was probably better to look into one of the other streets and from there–

“…ter…”

He paused. Was that… a voice?

“Sis…ter…”

Sister… someone was looking for a sister… For a second the image of Sister Lily’s face flashed through his mind, but he brushed it off. This voice couldn’t be looking for her here. But this sound… was that a kid?

“Sister,” the voice called again, small and weak and raspy, and this time he could make out where it was coming from. The alleyway. There was a kid in the alleyway!

For a split second Yuno’s voice resounded in his head, warning him to be careful, that this might easily be a trap. He shook it off. If there was a kid in trouble, it was his duty to help. This could be someone’s younger sibling, and as an older brother he couldn’t go past them without trying to do something!

“Hello?” he called softly into the darkness.

The was a sniffle and then silence. He blinked into the alley, but he couldn’t yet make out a figure among the darkening shadows.

“Hey!” he called again, a little louder this time. “Is anybody in there?”

“Who… are you?”

The voice was close now, much closer than he thought. Asta looked right and left, searching for its origin until his eyes finally came to rest on a tiny figure, pale, shaking and dusty, half hidden behind a stack of boxes filled with Asta didn’t know what. A little boy, not much older than four or five. Around the same age as some of his siblings at home.

“Hello,” he said gently, crouching down to take a closer look at the boy’s face. The child flinched, and he gave an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hurt you! You okay in there?”

The little boy continued to stare up at him with wide eyes, wide and bright and a little less frightened than before. “Um…” He rubbed his face, and Asta realized there were dusty tear stains on his cheeks. “Have you… seen my sister?”

So this kid was lost, wasn’t he? A wave of compassion washed over Asta’s chest. It was official. He couldn’t leave until he knew this boy was safe where he belonged.

“I dunno,” he said. “How does she look like?”

The boy’s eyes went even wider, and he stood up, stumbling out from behind the boxes. “Pretty,” he said and sniffled, blinking away the tears in his eyes. “She’s really tall and she’s got red hair and freckles. Have you seen her, mister?”

Asta frowned, trying to remember if he had seen a girl like that, but he couldn’t recall. “I… don’t think so,” he said slowly. The boy’s face fell, and before he could disappear into hiding again he added, “But we can find her! Together. How’s that sound?”

“Together…?”

The boy hesitated, and for a moment Asta thought he might disappear behind the boxes again. Then he nodded. “But my sister says I can’t go anywhere with strangers,” he said. “What’s your name?”

“It’s Asta!” Asta grinned from ear to ear. “What’s yours?”

“Robin.” The boy stepped out of the shadows and took Asta’s extended hand. “Robin Scarlet.”

“Okay! Let’s get you back home!”

And with a cheery, newly motivated grin Asta pulled him out of the alley and into the darkening streets.


	12. Brother and Sister

“Excuse me!”

A voice rang out over the crowded square, one of the last places where people were still gathered after sundown. Louder than a siren, rough and completely unabashed, it echoed off the surrounding walls, seemingly multiplying as though a group of other, quieter shouters kept on repeating everything the first voice said.

“Excuse me!” the voice shouted again– no, it yelled, still louder than before. Some passers-by covered their ears and hurried along, afraid of being dragged into something troublesome; others, however, paused in their tracks, turning around to search for the origin of the shouts with barely-contained curiosity.

What they saw was a boy, no older than fifteen or sixteen, short but sturdy and made entirely of muscle. Next to him, looking as if he’d rather hide behind him or disappear into the next dark corner away from all the people, stood another boy, a child this time; he was small and scrawny but better dressed than the teen at his side, but what stood out the most was his bright red mop of hair. They didn’t look like they could be brothers, or in any way related at all, and that alone was what made more and more people linger around them, wondering if something bad was going on.

“This boy lost his sister!” the teen proclaimed, pointing at the child, who inched closer to him and clung to his leg. “Has anybody seen his sister? She’s really tall and pretty and has red hair and freckles! And her name is… uh…” He lowered his voice to a stage whisper as he turned down to the little boy. “What’s her name, Robin?”

The boy stared down at the ground, tears welling up in his eyes. “I… don’t know,” he said with a sniffle. “I always call her Sister…”

“But her last name’s Scarlet, right? Like yours?”

“Um… I think so…”

“And her name is… we don’t know her name!” the teen continued to proclaim, unfazed. “But her last name is Scarlet! I think!” People started to snicker, but still the boy didn’t bat a single eye. “Does anybody know a girl by that name who’s missing a brother?”

Nobody spoke up, and he went back to shouting. “A girl whose last name is Scarlet!” his voice echoed through the crowd. “Miss Scarlet who’s missing her brother, please come here and pick him up! If you know where she is, please tell her she can find him here! Thank you very much!”

Still no one answered, and the people who had stood by and watched turned around and continued to walk as the boy shouted his proclamation for a third time.

\---

“Asta?”

Robin’s voice was the only sound to break the silence, the once so busy marketplace now as quiet and deserted as everything else in the city. He still clung to Asta’s leg like a lifeline, his tiny hand balled up around a fistful of fabric from his pants, holding on as though he was afraid of being swept away at any second. His voice was quiet and shaky, full of fear and desperation as he inched closer in a helpless attempt to find comfort.

“I’m hungry,” he mumbled, staring firmly at his feet. “And tired.”

Asta gazed down at him, feeling a tug of sympathy. Of course he was, poor kid. He must have been roaming the streets alone for who knew how long today.

“I don’t got any food either,” he said. “I ate all of it… Ah, but I can hunt! Want me to catch something and– oh wait!” He jolted and yelped, startled with the realization. “If I take you outta town they’re gonna think I’m kidnapping you! Crap…”

Robin only continued to cling to him without saying a word.

“I’m tired,” he repeated at last.

“Ah, wanna take a nap? It’s not super comfy or anything but I can give you my jacket so it’s not as cold… Hold on! Want me to pick you up?”

“Asta…”

Robin’s voice was even softer now, barely audible over the whispers of the evening wind making its way through roads and alleys. His grip on Asta’s leg had tightened, his knuckles pale as he clung to him with all the strength left in his tiny frame. His head was still hanging low, but his shoulders were shaking, and when he continued to speak he sounded like he was about to cry.

“What if…” He sniffled and swallowed, running his free hand across his face in a feeble attempt to be brave. “What if my sister’s never coming back?”

Asta blinked, kneeling down beside the boy to place a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Hey, now…”

“Sh-She told me not to stray too far away, but I still did it…” Robin sniffled again, followed by a sob he tried to muffle into his sleeve. “What if she’s mad at me and doesn’t want me back? W-What if she…” Another sob, louder and more violent than the first one. “What if she… h-hates me now?”

“She doesn’t hate you.”

Asta didn’t have to think about what to do or what to say. He simply knew. Giving a gentle sigh, he reached out and ruffled the little boy’s hair before gently lifting him up in his arms.

“I got little siblings too, you know,” he said, rubbing comforting circles on Robin’s trembling back. “At home. And they do a lot of stupid stuff, and they’re annoying, and they never listen to me and we fight all the time. But I still love them and I’d do anything to keep them safe.” He smiled. “Your sister’s gotta be the same. Even if she’s mad at you, she’d never give you up over stuff like that.”

Robin looked at him with wide, hopeful eyes. “Y-You think?”

Asta grinned and ruffled his hair again. “I know.”

Robin smiled and buried his face in his shirt again, but this time he wasn’t crying.

Asta didn’t know how long they stayed like that, simply sitting on the quiet, empty marketplace in the settling dark of the evening. The air cooled down, and it grew chilly around them as the breeze picked up, making Asta shiver underneath his jacket.

He should get out his blanket, he thought, but that would mean letting go of Robin, and the child was snuggled so quietly and comfortably into his chest that he might as well be asleep. And if he was, Asta thought, then he definitely didn’t want to wake him up again. So he’d hold out for a little longer, ignoring the chill and hoping that sooner or later someone would find them.

“Robin!”

Was he imagining things?

“Robin!” a female voice called again, loud and clear and full of worry and relief. Footsteps rang over the empty square as the distant voice came closer and closer. “Robin!”

Asta turned around. Running up to him, disheveled and out of breath, was a girl around his age, pale and freckled, her hair the same shade as Robin’s in the light of the rising moon.

“Hello,” he said. “Are you his sister–”

The girl ignored him. Crossing the last few feet between them, she grabbed the boy from his arms and held him to her chest with a desperate sob.

“Are you alright?” she asked the child, who only blinked in surprise and nodded. “Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness… I’ve been looking for you everywhere! I thought you might’ve been hurt or… or kidnapped, I was so scared… I’m so glad you’re safe!” Another sob shook her, and she ran a shameful hand across her eyes to wipe off the tears on her face. “Where in the world have you been?”

Robin’s eyes watered at that question, and he burst into tears.

“I’m so sorry, Sister!” he blabbered in between hiccups and sobs. “There was that lady in the street with pretty clothes and really pretty music and when I came back you weren’t there! I just wanted to look and then you were gone! I’m never gonna leave you to look at stuff again! I’m so sorry!”

The girl gave a sigh, holding her brother in place with one arm while pulling out a handkerchief with the other, wiping the tears and snot off his face. “It’s okay,” she said in the calmest voice she could manage. “This was my fault too, I should’ve checked if everyone was still together. Let’s both not make this mistake anymore, all right?”

Robin hiccuped and nodded.

For some time the girl simply stood there, gently rocking and patting her brother until his sniffles and hiccups subsided, wiping his face when it was necessary, brushing his messy hair out of his face. Robin snuggled up against her as he slowly calmed down, quietly staying with his face buried in her shirt for a while, and then suddenly he perked up.

“Ah!” he said, turning his head towards Asta. “But this really nice mister found me and helped me find you! So say thank you to him too, Sister!”

The girl’s eyes met with Asta’s, fully registering his presence for the first time. “Oh, right!” she burst out, placing down her brother and stumbling towards him to extend a hurried, grateful hand. “I’m sorry, I should’ve thought of this earlier… I can’t thank you enough. My friend told me she heard of a boy telling people my brother was here, so without your proclamations… no, let’s not talk about that.” She swallowed. “Thank you so much for looking after my brother and helping us find each other. If there’s anything I can do to repay you…”

Asta straightened up, taking the girl’s offered hand and squeezing it. “Don’t worry about it!” he said. “It was nothing! I’m happy to help!”

“Really? It wouldn’t be a problem, you know…”

“No, it’s okay!” Asta shook his head. “I have little siblings at home too, you know… I couldn’t walk past a lost kid!”

“At home?” the girl repeated, her eyes widening slightly. “Are you not from here?”

“Nope! I’m from Hage village, I only came here today!”

“Hage? That’s in the middle of nowhere!” The girl frowned. “You… Do you have a place to stay?”

Asta’s expression derailed into a caught, sheepish grin. “Uh…”

She narrowed her eyes. “Not?”

“Ah, uh… about that…”

“Sister?” Robin piped in, tugging at her skirt. “Can Asta stay with us?”

She glanced down at him, then back at Asta, who was still looking and feeling extremely sheepish. Then she sighed, ruffling her brother’s hair and cracking a slight exasperated smile. “He said it,” she said. “My family owns an inn. You can stay there if you need a place.”

“Uh, what?” Asta’s eyes went round with surprise and disbelief. “Really?”

“If you want to.”

An unexpected wave of relief washed over Asta’s soul. So he wouldn’t have to sleep outside in the cold tonight, and he wouldn’t have to starve. And tomorrow he could continue with his job hunt well-fed and well-rested; maybe this girl and her brother could even tell him where to find work! He hadn’t even realized how much he had worried about all this until now, but now that it had resolved itself, he felt so relieved he didn’t know what to do with himself.

“Okay!” he burst out, his voice echoing over the marketplace as he bowed. “I’ll be in your care! Thank you very much– uh–” He lifted his head to blink up at the girl. “What’s your name, anyway?”

The girl gave a slight smile. “Rebecca.”

“Thank you very much, Rebecca! I’ll do what I can to repay you!”

“Thanks– wait, _I’m_ repaying _you_ here.”

“Then I’ll repay you for repaying me!”

“I feel like we’re stuck in an endless loop here…”

“Sister? What does repaying mean?”

“Oh, it’s when–”

A window barged open above their heads. “Shut up!” yelled a furious voice. “Do you know what time it is? People are trying to sleep here!”

“Sorry to disturb you!” Asta shouted back, bowing again. “We’re leaving already!”

“ _Shut the hell up!_ ”

With a heavy sigh Rebecca grabbed his arm and pulled him in the direction of one of the streets. “Whatever. Just follow me.”


	13. New Lives

The others had received their mail, but of course there was nothing for him.

Yuno sighed, wondering why on earth he had expected anything different in the first place. It had been two weeks now, and still there had been nothing, no letters, no information, nothing at all. Nothing from home. And nothing from Asta, either.

He wondered if that was a good or a bad thing. On one hand, it probably meant that he couldn’t say something had happened to him for sure; on the other hand, he knew absolutely nothing. Wherever Asta was, whatever he was doing, if he was on his way home or if he was still in the city somewhere, if he had recovered from his injuries or if he was still lying in the infirmary, bandaged up or unable to move… he knew nothing about him now. If he went looking for him, he’d have no way to find him. And that was slowly beginning to wear him out.

He had almost grown accustomed to having a room to himself. It wasn’t like falling asleep on his own was all new, anyway, not after the weeks and weeks Asta had spent disappearing to train somewhere from early morning till late in the evening. It wasn’t that he was disturbed by the size of the room either, even though it was huge, much too huge for one person alone and much too ornate for comfort. All of that would be bearable, and he could fall asleep just fine every night if only he could know for sure that somewhere, out there, Asta was safely and peacefully doing the same.

Where on earth was he? And why hadn’t he heard from him? Was something wrong?

“Did you not get any letters?”

Only Yuno’s composure kept him from jumping into the ceiling. Standing in front of him was Mimosa, an envelope in hand and seemingly popping out of nowhere to almost give him a heart attack.

“No,” he said, not meeting her eyes and already seeking for the fastest escape from this conversation. If he had learned anything in the past two weeks, it was that sooner or later any talk he had with Mimosa was bound to turn incredibly awkward.

“Oh, that’s a shame!” Mimosa’s expression turned sympathetic, and Yuno knew he was doomed. “You never get any letters, do you? Not even from your family… I get a lot from my family, this is from my cousin! She says she dislikes writing letters but I finally got to convince her to reply!” She beamed. “Are you waiting for replies too?”

Yuno squirmed. This was getting uncomfortably close to personal business. How did she always do that?

“No,” he said, in a tone that hopefully made it clear he didn’t want to talk about this. “I’m just checking.”

“Really? You should write to someone then! If you want to get letters it might be best to reach out to people first and wait for their response, you know?”

Yuno gave her a _look_. It went unnoticed.

“Like your friend, for example!” Mimosa chattered on, and Yuno froze on the spot. “You know, the one who got injured on the day of–”

“ _I know._ ”

Yuno sent her a glare that could have turned people to stone, but she ignored it. He turned his head away. This was getting uncomfortable, extremely so. He didn’t feel safe in this conversation. He didn’t want to talk about Asta or anything else that came with the subject. Things like that were personal business. He didn’t want to bring it up.

“Did… I say something wrong?”

Well, at least she had realized it now, Yuno thought, sighing quietly at Mimosa’s soft voice. “Never mind,” he said out loud, still refusing to look at her face. “It’s nothing important.”

“Really? Well, if you say so…” Mimosa sounded confused, but at least she seemed to believe him. “Although I think you really should try writing to people. They may not know how to approach you because you seem a little intimidating at first, you know?”

“...I guess.” Yuno had no intentions of following her advice, but what he wanted nothing more than to get out of this conversation, so he had no choice but to pretend to agree, at least a little. “Thank you.”

Before she got another chance to reply he turned on his heel, marching through the hallway and escaping back into his room, resting his head against the window with a sigh.

If only things were as simple as Mimosa was trying to put them, he thought. If only he could just grab paper and a pen and write a letter to Asta and send it off, fully knowing where it would go and when he could expect an answer. If only he at least had an address, some kind of information about the fate of his best friend and hero.

It felt so weird. So… wrong, somehow. For all his life he had always had Asta nearby, always knowing where he was or at least what he was doing and that he was coming back soon. But right now he didn’t know anything. And the worst part was that he didn’t even know how to find out where he was.

_Did I make a mistake?_

The thought slid silently into his head, the very same question that had been keeping him up night after night. A dozen times over he had thought through all the things he could have done differently, all the things that would have kept Asta safe. Should he have sent him home after their run-in in the wild? Asta might have got lost on the way back, but it wouldn’t have been far, and this was Asta after all. He would have managed somehow, Yuno was sure. Or even if he had let him tag along, Yuno could have kept him from entering the exam. It would have been easy. If only he hadn’t vouched for him at the entrance, none of this would have happened. He would still be safe and sound. Frustrated and disappointed and probably some degree of mad at him, but safe and sound and uninjured.

It had been selfish to let Asta enter the exam, Yuno knew. And yet he also knew that if he had to make the choice again, he would always do the same. It wouldn’t be right to lock him out of it after letting him tag along for the entire way, no matter what horrifying results came from it. It simply wouldn’t be fair.

There was no way he could have avoided Asta’s injuries, Yuno knew. But he could have stayed by his side afterwards.

Yes, that was something he could have done easily, something he should have done. So what if Mimosa had pressured him into hurrying up because the Golden Dawn didn’t want to wait any longer? He shouldn’t have listened to them all. He should have done what he did best and shot a death glare at anyone who bothered him and sent them all off by themselves, telling them all he wouldn’t move an inch until his friend and family was safe and sound and cared for.

Except… it wasn’t that simple. He’d had no authority in the Golden Dawn yet, and even now he barely had any. Who could say if they wouldn’t simply have expelled him from the order again if he had started things out by causing trouble? It wouldn’t have been worth the risk. His present self knew that as well as his past one had.

Truth be told, Yuno just wished there had been a way, any way, to stay with Asta long enough to see what would happen to him. Even if that would mean he had missed that chance. He just wished that their separation, their inability to find out about each other’s fate except through pure luck, hadn’t been as inevitable as it truly was.

As things were, though, there was nothing he could do except wait and stay on the lookout. Maybe Asta would send him a letter from home, or his family would reply telling him where he was. Or maybe they’d bump each other on his next mission to the capital. He would find out somehow. Sooner or later.

Hopefully sooner rather than later, though. This uncertainty was seriously starting to get to him.

\---

“Rebecca, there’s more people in here!”

“Alright. Hold on!” Rebecca shouted back, placing down the pile of trays and empty plates and cups and hurrying back out of the kitchen. “You do the washing up,” she said in passing. “I’ll take care of the people. Oh, and when you’re done with that, could you also–”

“Get more chicken halves outta the basement and unfreeze them? I already did!” Asta breathed into his hands to try and warm them up. “So cold…”

Rebecca’s gaze rested on him, surprised, and he caught her gaze and grinned. “Hey, I saw we were running low!” he said. “Everyone’s eating the chicken, so I thought we needed more of it here.”

Rebecca smiled back. “You’re learning.”

“‘Course I am.” Asta wiped a hand over his forehead and shook out his hair. “I had to help out at home too after all, I’m used to this!”

“I can tell,” Rebecca answered as she shooed two of her youngest siblings back into the kitchen. They refused until Asta grabbed them, one in each arm, lifting them up and carrying them away from the bustle of the inn. She sighed and shook her head, and Asta laughed as the two kids held onto his shoulders, visibly enjoying being carried around.

It had been two weeks, two weeks in which Asta had quickly grown used to the life in this place. The house was always busy, busy in a way that was completely different from the orphanage at home, strangers and familiar faces appearing and disappearing by the dozens every day. But there were still kids, plenty of little kids he had managed to befriend with ease, and the house was constantly filled with a bustle of noises and footsteps and voices that felt all too much like home. They were different people, of course, but they were still kids, a bunch of bratty and annoying but lovable younger siblings the likes of which he had grown so used to, and sometimes when he closed his eyes he almost thought he was still back in Hage, and Sister Lily would come around the corner at any given second.

There was only one thing missing from the perfect illusion of Hage. The younger kids were all there, as were the parental figures. But what this place didn’t have was a Yuno.

Of course it couldn’t have _a_ Yuno, Asta knew. There was only one Yuno in his life, _the_ Yuno, and that one was irreplaceable. Even if he found someone with the exact same appearance and personality, it still wouldn’t be the same. It wouldn’t be his Yuno but a carbon copy without the history, the promise and lifelong rivalry, and that would be a Yuno he didn’t want. It would be a fake, and he couldn’t accept anyone but the real thing.

What was Yuno doing right now, he wondered? Probably some cool and important Magic Knight business. Asta clenched his fists in annoyance. That handsome jerk. Who had allowed him to be all high and mighty and get to do all the fancy stuff by himself? He wanted to join, damn it!

Not that Asta had any idea what exactly Magic Knights did. He supposed they fought bad guys and stuff, but apart from that he hadn’t given the question much thought, he realized. Maybe Yuno had already saved some lives or fought and defeated nasty villains, or maybe he had done some other secret and important job Asta would do anything to be entrusted with. He was in the… what was it called again?... the Golden Dawn, or something. That was the squad where all the strongest guys were, so he betted their missions were to die for.

Perhaps he should contact Yuno, he thought as he washed and rinsed the dishes at a speed that made the others marvel how he kept it up without breaking anything. Write him a letter, or however else he could reach him. Then again he didn’t know where to send it in the first place. Would it suffice to just address it to the Golden Dawn headquarters? Where were they in the first place? And besides, he needed to write a letter home first. As soon as he got his first pay and had enough money, anyway.

Right, he should take care of everyone at home first. Yuno could wait. They were just rivals after all, and rivals didn’t need to keep in touch all the time. Besides, he somehow wasn’t happy with the thought of talking to him again until he made some progress.

For the time being he was busy with work, anyway. And when he found the time he’d have to train his strength and powers. Maybe if he worked hard enough he’d still manage to find a way to make it into the Magic Knights and catch up his year of delay. Not giving up was his magic, after all.

Yuno could wait. For now Asta definitely had enough on his plate.

Although he did wonder what life was like for a Magic Knight.

\---

“Elly, please, I’m hungry…”

The girl in the pigtails made a panicked noise, awkwardly holding onto the arm of the young woman on her side, struggling to keep her from walking right through the inn door. “We can’t eat yet!” she protested. “We need to at least finish this mission!”

“Why? I can’t do magic on an empty stomach!”

“You’ll drink again! You can’t do magic drunk either!”

“I won’t drink. I’ll just eat, okay? And you can eat something too! My treat.” The woman looked down at the girl with puppy-dog eyes. “Pretty please?”

The girl hesitated. Her eyes darted around with a shadow of guilt. Then she sighed.

“Fine,” she said. “But no alcohol.”


	14. My Fair Ladies

“R-R-R… Re-Re-Re-Rebeccaaaaaa!”

Rebecca almost dropped the tray she was carrying, stumbling to a halt and avoiding the small, agitated figure darting around the corner at the last second. Asta skidded and stopped himself against the doorframe, waving his arms around for balance. All his composure had gone out the window; his eyes were so wide they nearly fell out of their holes, glowing and sparkling as his mouth gaped wide open with barely-contained excitement.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, bringing out an arm to steady them both. “Did something happen?”

“Our best table! Where’s our best table?” Asta’s head shot back over his shoulder, searching right and left as if he was ready to dart back into the restaurant at any second. “We need it! Right now!”

Rebecca raised her eyebrows. “Our best one? You mean our biggest or something?” She peered around the corner but couldn’t spot anything special. “Why, did a big party come in?”

“No!” Asta gave his head a violent shake, gesturing wildly at the door before remembering it was rude to point and awkwardly dropping his hand. “Over there! You see those robes?”

Squinting, Rebecca stared into the direction he had pointed out, but at first she couldn’t spot anything special. Robes? What in the–

Oh. Over there.

Standing at the door, looking a little forlorn as they waited to be seated, were two young women in Black Bull uniforms.

“Magic Knights!” Asta whisper-shouted, his eyes shining in awe. “I’ve never seen them in real life before! Well. Aside from the exam. But they’re so cool! I bet they're out doing really important stuff! Ah, I wanna know how they got into the Knights, I bet they worked really hard!” He waved his hands about in excitement, and Rebecca quickly stepped out of his reach to keep him from knocking off the tray. “Can I serve them? Please!”

Rebecca couldn’t help feeling a little concerned at Asta’s overexcited state, but she didn’t have the heart to stop him from meeting his idols. She did hope he would calm down soon though. The way he currently acted made him look like an embarrassment to the inn.

“Okay,” she said with a sigh. “Don’t overdo it. If there’s a problem, call me.”

“Roger!” Asta shouted, making several people stare at him, and then he was off. Rebecca shook her head and sighed again. Looking at the state he was currently in, it would border on a miracle if he didn’t accidentally trip over a few chairs or knock over a table.

She delivered the tray she was still holding in her hands, took another order, and hurried to join him.

Asta was doing a decent job so far, she had to admit. Bubbling excitement aside, his movements were solid, his manners a little over-the-top but otherwise impeccable. He had found them the best free table available, holding the chairs for both guests as they sat down and scrambling over his own feet to get them both copies of the menu. Rebecca watched them from the corner of her eye. She wasn’t sure the poor women really wanted anyone to make such a fuss about them.

Well, _women_ might be an exaggeration. Only one of them was a full-grown woman in the first place; the other one was a girl, about the same age as Asta and Rebecca and visibly a new recruit. And beautiful too, she thought. To be fair, both of them were beautiful in their own ways. The woman, a tall, well-built lady in her early twenties, radiated a cool, mature beauty in every easygoing movement, her posture and behavior confident and her voice and expression playful, waves of salmon-colored hair spilling out from underneath her pointy witch’s hat and over her barely-covered curves. The girl, however, was gorgeous. She had the face of a doll, her large magenta eyes shadowed by long lashes, her cheeks still childlike and chubby and as pink as her lips with a nervous blush. Her silver hair was pulled up into a tight pair of silky pigtails, matching the snowy white of her dress.

She was… _cute_ , Rebecca thought. Beautiful in an innocent way, charming somehow, and Rebecca liked that much better than the mature gorgeousness of her companion. It wasn’t that she found the lady’s looks threatening. Maybe it was just a matter of personal preference, or maybe it was her protective instincts speaking, making her naturally drawn to everything cute and innocent.

Someone called her over to their table, and tearing her eyes from the girl, she went, hurrying up with the order a little more than necessary. As soon as she was done she made her way back to the Magic Knights’ table, busying herself a short distance away while watching them from the corner of her eye.

“Have you chosen yet, honored guests?” Asta asked the two knights, standing stiff as a stick and still giving off the aura of trying way too hard. “Or would you like a recommendation?”

The woman looked up from her menu, eyeing him with laid-back curiosity. “My dear boy, you don’t need to stand here,” she said. “You can go serve the other tables, and when we’ve chosen we’ll call you back over. Hm?” She winked, and Asta went pink.

“N-N-No!” he spluttered, straightening up even more, a feat Rebecca had deemed impossible. “It’s not every day that we get Magic Knights here! We’re greatly honored!”

The girl in the pigtails gave a haughty little scoff. “As you should be, peasant. A treatment like this is the bare minimum.”

“Yes! Of course! Sorry! Thank you!”

Rebecca suppressed a sigh. A few years ago she would have been annoyed at the girl’s behavior, but by now she had seen so many customers straight from hell that she didn’t bat an eye anymore. As long as that cute but tragically spoiled girl didn’t start picking fights with the other guests or demanding her money back for superficial reasons, she didn’t care.

“Don’t be like that, Elly,” the woman said, looping an arm around the girl and slumping on her shoulder, making her jump and stiffen in her seat. “It’s so nice of him, right?”

“V-Vanessa! Could you please get off my shoulder?” The girl blushed and struggled to push the woman back off. “W-We’re in public! Such shameless displays of affection…” She trailed off, her cheeks pinker than ever.

“C’mon, loosen up! Nothing wrong with showing our friendship, is there?”

“U-Um…”

Rebecca paused, half considering stepping in. The poor girl looked really flustered. Then again these two were squadmates, they had come in together, and as long as the woman – Vanessa? – only kept to this level of clingy, there was no real reason to intercept things. The two of them really did seem friendly, after all.

“So, it’s…” Asta glanced from one to the other, pointing first at the woman and then at the girl. “Vanessa… and Elly, right?”

“That’s right!” the woman chirped at the same time as the girl burst out, “Wrong!”

Asta blinked in surprise. “Which is it?”

“Wrong!” the girl said again, standing up from her chair as she spoke, staring down at Asta with pure pride in her eyes. “You must truly be uneducated to not know my name. But since you are a peasant, I shall forgive you this once.” She tossed back her hair. “My name is Noelle Silva, youngest daughter of the royal family, and I demand that you address me with the respect due to a noble!”

Asta stared at her for a long, long time. His expression looked faintly confused.

“Those are a lot of big words,” he said at last. “But… it’s Noelle, right?”

“Ye– _wait!_ ” Noelle blushed bright red, shocked and appalled and at least three kinds of horrified. “Wha-Wha-Wha-What are you talking about?” she spluttered. “How dare you address me in that insolent way, you… you… you lowly insect!”

“Well, what else should I call you?” Asta shouted back, sounding less annoyed than genuinely confused. “Your Royal Highness or something?”

“Naturally!”

“But why? We’re the same age, and you’re not even the queen or something!”

“ _You–_ ”

“Calm down, Elly,” Vanessa interrupted the argument. “Do you know what to get? I can’t choose, everything sounds so yummy…”

Noelle gave a jolt. Tearing her eyes from Asta, she sat back down, picking up her menu and disappearing behind it, visibly embarrassed to have been caught making a scene. “I don’t need anything,” she muttered. “Nothing here sounds suited to appease my tastes. But…” She gave a haughty little hmph, but Rebecca caught her eyes shining with hungry excitement. “If I have to choose one, I suppose I’ll try this.”

“The chicken?” Vanessa peered over her shoulder. “Hmm, that sounds delicious! I’ll take the chicken too!” She turned to Asta. “We’ll have two of the chicken, please! And to drink–”

“Nothing,” Noelle interrupted her, clapping a hand over her companion’s mouth. “Absolutely nothing!”

Asta looked confused. “Uh… really?”

“Absolutely!” Noelle snapped, ignoring Vanessa’s muffled protests. “What are you still standing around here for? Hurry up and bring us our food, insect!”

Asta saluted and hurried off.

“But Elly,” Vanessa spluttered and gasped out as soon as Noelle let go of her mouth. “I only wanted some water…”

\---

A short while later Asta came back with two plates of food, placing them down in front of the guests and bowing. “Here’s your food!” he shouted. “Please enjoy your meal!”

Not even Noelle could complain about the length of the wait. Picking up her fork and knife, she dug into the chicken, only chewing for a few seconds before her eyes went round.

“Mhm!” she burst out, her whole face lighting up as she raised her head. “This is delicious!”

Asta grinned with pride. “Tell that to her!” he said, pointing at Rebecca. “She’s the one who made it!”

Noelle followed his pointed hand. Rebecca, who was busy a few tables away, glanced up and their gazes met.

“It’s…” Noelle blushed, visibly embarrassed to have been caught so excited. “It exceeds my expectations.”

Rebecca smiled. “Thank you for your high praise, my lady.”

Noelle blushed even redder and returned back to the food. Rebecca continued to watch her. The once-so-haughty young royal continued to eat with unfaltering excitement, munching down on the chicken as fast as her upper-class manners allowed. Somehow that expression felt good; the look on her face was much higher praise than her words, and Rebecca felt a little more like she wasn’t doing this job for nothing.

“Hmm, that was yummy!” Vanessa shouted after she finished her plate, stretching out with a satisfied smile on her face. “Now I’m so thirsty though… don’t look at me like that, Elly, I won’t order alcohol! Just some water, okay?”

Noelle frowned. Then something flashed over her face, and she pressed her fingertips together as if trying to focus on something.

“You don’t need to order water,” she said. “I can give you water. Give me your cup.”

Vanessa pushed over her empty cup, her expression a little doubtful. “Are you sure…?”

“Absolutely. Watch me!”

Noelle closed her eyes, took a deep breath, aimed, and shot a splash of water in the direction of the cup. It flew straight towards it, curved…

“Watch out!”

Asta moved faster than the eye could see. Leaping forward, he grabbed the cup, pushing it under the splash of water to catch it inside just in time.

“That was close,” he said with a sigh of relief. “You almost missed it!”

The entire restaurant, including the two Magic Knights, was staring at him with wide eyes.

“You,” Noelle broke the silence at last, her eyes wide and horror-struck with disbelief. “What kind of magic did you use to catch that?”

“Hm? I didn’t.” Asta blinked down at the cup in his hand. “I can’t use magic.”

“ _What?!_ ”

He tilted his head. “Something wrong?”

“Everything is wrong!” Noelle was on her feet again. “No mere human should have reflexes this fast without magical help! And how did you foresee…” Her voice trailed off. “Forget it. Simply know that I do not believe a single word you say.”

Asta placed the cup down in front of Vanessa, scratching his head. “Uh… okay,” he said. “So… here’s your drink.”

There was a very long silence. Vanessa sipped her water. Noelle continued to stare at her plate as if trying to see a pattern in the leftover chicken bones.

“You,” she said at last, stiff and somehow clumsier than before. “W-What is your name?”

“Me? I’m Asta.” Asta sounded confused at first, then he remembered something and shot back up straight. “My name is Asta from Hage! I have no magic, but I’m trying to become the Wizard King! Nice to meet you!”

“No one asked for these details, Asta– no, Stupidsta! I merely asked for your name!”

“Well, I’m sorry! I thought you wanted to know who I am!”

“Not in excruciating detail! Besides,” Noelle continued, as if he had just proved her point. “Aiming for Wizard King without magical powers? Don’t be ridiculous.” She scoffed. “You are hiding a magical power after all, are you?”

“I… no! I swear I’m not!”

“That is absurd! Everyone has magical powers!”

“And I don’t!”

“I refuse to believe that!” Noelle sat back down. “Asta, I do not have time to research you in detail today. But I will be back, and then I will find out!” She scoffed. “No one lies to a member of the royal family. It will be in your best interest to remember that.”


	15. The Worries of Lady Noelle

“And that,” Vanessa concluded her report, “is why Elly now really wants to see this boy again.”

Noelle squirmed at that sentence. She didn’t like the way Vanessa was phrasing things; her tone, along with the none-too-subtle wink she unnecessarily added to her words, made all this sound suggestive, way too suggestive for comfort. It wasn’t like she wanted to see that insolent human for who he was as a person. On the contrary. He had to be one of the most insufferable people she had ever met in her life.

“Don’t make that face,” she protested, hoping her face didn’t look as flushed as it felt. “Who _he_ is doesn’t matter. I simply need to know–”

“What, what, what?” Charmy appeared from behind her pile of food, her cheeks still stuffed and covered in crumbs. “Noelle has a crush?”

“I just said–”

“Who knows,” Vanessa chimed, taking another drink and completely ignoring Noelle’s panicked death glare. “But he seemed like a very cute boy to me! Very nice, and so well-built, wasn’t he?”

“I don’t remember!” The truth was that Noelle did, but only for the sake of recognizing him later. It wasn’t like she found him attractive anyway. He was short, and she had never liked overly muscular meatheads; the people she tended to like were taller and calmer and gentler, not to mention a million times less stupid. “And it doesn’t matter to me! It’s not like anyone can develop a… a c-crush from one short meeting!”

Vanessa gave her a pitying look. “Honey, have you never heard about love at first sight?”

Noelle went pink, trying not to think of all the cheesy romance novels she had secretly borrowed from the library and read in her room when she couldn’t sleep. Of course she had heard about love at first sight. She had read about it a million times over, shaken her head at it, found it horribly unrealistic and kept reading anyway. This might be real in fiction, or maybe for other people. But her? She could never imagine falling in love with someone she barely knew at all.

“That is absurd,” she said. “It only exists in fairy tales. And for the last time, I simply want to know what power he is hiding, because humans without magical powers do not exist in this world.” She scoffed. “If he were to die the next day, it wouldn’t matter to me any more than the death of an insect.”

Luck poked his head in through the door. “Who’s hiding a power?”

“Some lowlife who thinks he can fool me!”

“Cool! Is he strong?” Luck threw air punches and darted up to Noelle in no time, getting all up in her face with sparkling, shining eyes. “Can I fight him? I wanna fight him!”

Noelle sighed and leaned back to get him out of her personal space. Typical Luck, she thought. But she was grateful to him nonetheless, grateful for being the only one in this room who actually cared about the real topic of this conversation.

“He seems strong _physically_ ,” she said, “and he has fast reflexes. Everything else is a mystery.”

Luck made a face, visibly trying to picture the boy and figure out if he was worth fighting or not. Finral sighed from across the table. “Guys, if he really has no powers, maybe it’s not the best idea to just attack him and–”

“Impossible!” Noelle shouted at once.

“And even if he does,” Finral continued, “don’t you think his powers could just be so weak he basically has none? You’d kill him and–”

“No one’s killing anybody,” said a voice from the door.

They all sat straight. Walking into the room, tall and dark and looming as always, was Captain Yami, with Magna trailing close behind.

“Don’t even think of anything,” he said, plopping down in his favorite seat and helping himself to a generous serving of dinner. “I’m still responsible for all of your fuck-ups. Hard enough to keep things going with this guy’s killing sprees–” he pointed at Luck, who looked perfectly unapologetic– “and this guy’s sister complex.” He motioned towards Gauche, who wasn’t listening. “Cause any more trouble and I’m kicking your asses!”

“Yessir!” they all said in unison.

“Anyway,” Yami said after a moment of stuffing his face in silence, “what were you talking about?”

Finral’s head spun around. “I thought you knew!”

“Nah. All I heard was ‘kill him.’” Yami chewed and swallowed. “Who’s trynna kill who?”

Noelle quickly told him before Vanessa or anyone else could further spread misinformation.

Yami was silent after she finished, his face clouded over as he stared at his food, watching it cool without taking another bite. Something seemed to weigh on his mind. He looked spaced out, contemplating something the others could only guess.

“What’s the matter?” Finral said at last, when the silence drew on too long. “Have you heard of someone like that?”

Blinking, Yami zoned back in, looking a little taken off guard before shaking his head. “Nah,” he said. “Just wondering.”

“D’you think there can be someone like that?” Magna asked. “Without magical powers?”

“No clue.” Yami demonstratively picked up a huge slice of meat and stuffed it into his mouth with one bite. “Not like it’s important anyway. We got more urgent jobs to do, so shut up about that and focus!”

They tried to ask him about it again a few times, but from him that was the end of it.

\---

Yami walked back towards his room, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

It was probably stupid, thinking so much about that story the others had told him. There could be a million explanations for that incident, from that brat having very weak powers to him simply being younger than he looked, and whatever magic he had in him simply still being dormant. Had he had a Grimoire? Noelle and Vanessa hadn’t mentioned anything, but if he didn’t, he was probably underage. Soon enough he’d get one, and then his powers would develop. They’d be weak as hell, but he would have them, just like everyone else in this world did.

...Right?

A muscular kid with strong reflexes and no Grimoire despite looking fifteen…

Yami shook his head. No way. It couldn’t be that guy. This was probably a coincidence, and he had simply been reminded of the exams because of some parallels. What were the odds that he and Noelle really had run into the same person? That city was big. Besides, what would that brat even be doing working at an inn, anyway?

So why couldn’t he get this uneasy feeling out of his head?

Yami hated to admit it, but he understood Noelle. It wasn’t like he’d accuse that guy of lying, but there was something weird to all this, something he couldn’t fully make sense of, and that was bugging him. His gut feeling was telling him something was off, and his gut feeling had never betrayed him before. There was something sketchy going on here somewhere, and it was best to get on top of it before it got out of hand.

So, what should he do? Go back on his words that this doesn’t matter and join Noelle and whoever else wanted to come on the trip to that place? And then what? Looking at the kid would probably help him figure out if this was the same guy from the entrance exams, but that was pretty much it. If he wanted to know if he really had no magical powers and why, the boy most likely didn’t know that himself.

He sighed. Did that matter? So maybe he really had no magical powers, big deal. Maybe that was a thing that existed, just very rarely. It wasn’t like this meant that he was not human or an explosion waiting to happen, right?

Oh well. Would just need to keep an eye on all this and figure something out, he supposed.

If push came to shove, his gut would tell him what to do.

\---

The past few days had been so busy that he had barely thought about Asta at all.

Yuno flopped down on his bed, staring at the ceiling, ornate and probably pretty by the standards of the nobles who had had this made. He didn’t think much of it. It looked overdone somehow, artificial, as if someone had tried to imitate the sky in its colors and patterns but decided that it wasn’t fancy and shiny and sparkly enough even though there was nothing more beautiful than the sky in its natural form, no matter if it was blue and spotless or cloudy and stormy or sprinkled with stars. He’d rather sleep under the real sky. But that would be cold, and he was too grateful to have his own room to try.

Besides, being in here meant relaxation, he thought, a few precious hours of freedom before the next mission. Not that he disliked being on missions. On the contrary. It was good practice, he got good results, and it was best at keeping his mind off… _things_.

Yuno had checked the mail first thing after getting back. Nothing. He had sent a letter home the other day, strongly nudging them to tell if they knew anything about Asta while staying vague enough to hopefully not worry them, but so far there had been no response. Naturally, he thought. Sending letters to and from the boonies took forever. It was only a matter of time.

Hopefully.

“Can I come in?”

Yuno lifted his head. _No_ , he wanted to say, but he recognized the voice. There was no use saying no to Mimosa. She would only continue to ask why, and if he didn’t want to tell her she would pester him until he caved. And the worst part was that she didn’t even mean any harm at all.

“Sure,” he said with disinterest, rolling over to lie face-down on his bed. He was not in the mood for much of a conversation today. The shorter she kept this, the better.

The door opened, and in slipped Mimosa, throwing a glance at him, then sitting down in the unoccupied desk chair. “Don’t mind me,” she said. “I couldn’t find anywhere else to read my letter in peace, it’s so loud outside my room…”

Yuno didn’t bother with a reply. He just hoped she really only meant to read her letter this time and not chatter on and on about it like she usually did.

But no such luck, of course. Mimosa had barely started to read when her eyes went wide, and she sat up in her chair, pointing at something in the letter. “Oh, look at this,” she said. “My cousin has met someone interesting!”

Yuno stifled a yawn.

“It’s a boy our age,” she said. “She says he’s a little weird, but I hope they can be friends! Noelle has so few friends…”

Yuno closed his eyes. He honestly didn’t care about Mimosa’s cousin who he had never met before in his life, but most of all he was _tired_ , and he wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone right now. It wasn’t like he knew what to reply anyway. He could probably manage some polite responses if he tried, but even that seemed awkward and exhausting.

“But of course she doesn’t think of him that way,” Mimosa went on, and Yuno tuned her out, too tired to follow her words. “She only goes on about how he won’t tell her what his magic is… He must be hiding something, he says, because–” She stopped short. Her eyes skimmed over the same passage of her letter again.

“Apparently… he says he has no magic at all… Yuno?”

Yuno wasn’t listening anymore. He had fallen asleep.


	16. Good News Will Come

Several days prior, the small orphanage in Hage had been louder and more excited than it had been in weeks.

The place had been quiet since its two oldest residents had left, so quiet that even Nash couldn’t help but admit it was a little boring without Asta sometimes. The others noticed it even more. Holo, Recca and Aruru constantly complained about being bored and wanting to play with Asta, and all the children groaned over having to do more of the housework now that Yuno wasn’t there to do everything with his magic anymore. Sister Lily read Asta’s parting note over and over and wondered if he was safe, and even the Father, despite insisting the boys were grown up and he didn’t miss them at all, frequently caught himself setting the table for the two who were absent.

The only good thing about the boys’ absence was that they had more food now, but not even that could make them much happier. What use was a filled stomach when the house was too quiet, and the table they ate all their food from looked so much emptier than before? Their stomachs were fuller, but their lives were a little emptier, and the only thing they could do was wait for news from Asta and Yuno.

“Sister Lily, Sister Lily! We got a letter!”

Sister Lily jumped up from where she had been hanging up the laundry, nearly dropping the clean bedsheets and clothes down onto the ground. She barely managed to spot Holo speeding towards her before she was knocked over, a slightly crinkled but official-looking envelope shoved roughly into her face.

“It just came!” the little girl shouted, waving the letter around in every direction and nearly slapping Lily across the face. “What’s it say? Is it from Asta and Yuno?”

“Hold on, hold on,” Lily said with a laugh, catching her hand and gently taking the letter from her hands. “Calm down! I can’t read it if you wave it around, you know?”

Truth be told, she wasn’t exactly calm herself. It had been so long since the last news from Yuno, and that had still been before the boys had entered the Magic Knight exams. They should be over by now, shouldn’t they? It was the season for that. Going by the look of the envelope, the shininess and smoothness of the paper, the royal blue of the ink, at least one of them had made it. And that handwriting…

Lily didn’t lose a second. Jumping to her feet, she ran all around the house, gathering the whole family and dragging them to the table, sitting down in the middle and opening the envelope as they all stretched themselves over in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the letter before she did.

“It’s from Yuno,” she said, and they all perked up. “It’s not very long, but… Should I read it?”

They all nodded unanimously, and Sister Lily read,

“ _ Dear everyone, _

_ Asta and I arrived safely in the city. We both took the Magic Knight exam, and I made it into the Golden Dawn, the highest-ranking squad. I’ll be busy with my duties from now on, so I won’t visit anytime soon, but I’ll send you some of my pay as soon as I have it. Use it however you like. I’ll tell you more when I have time. Take care. _

_ Yuno _ ”

There was a moment’s silence after she finished. Lily frowned, then she scanned over the letter again. Turned the paper in her hands, searching for anything else, a postscript perhaps, a note scribbled on the back. She even shook the envelope. Nothing.

“That’s all?” Nash asked at last, speaking out what everyone was thinking.

Lily nodded. “It seems so,” she said. “I can’t find anything else… well, Yuno has never been one for many words, has he?”

Truth be told, she wasn’t satisfied either. But if she showed that in front of the kids, they would only get worried.

“Wait a second,” the Father said at last, diverting the attention away from the brevity of the letter. “Yuno got into the  _ Golden Dawn _ ?!”

“It says so…”

“Yuno!” the priest burst out, breaking into sobs as the children’s eyes shone with pure admiration. “That’s my boy for you! Our pride and joy!”

Lily smiled, a wave of pride washing through her own chest. Yuno… the same Yuno she had known since he was a fragile crybaby who always hid behind Asta, who she had seen grow up from a toddler into a quiet, composed young man with overwhelming powers. That very same Yuno was now a Magic Knight, member of the Golden Dawn, best of the best, and she couldn’t be happier.

But speaking of Asta…

“He says he and Asta arrived safely,” she said, “but what about everything else? This letter doesn’t say…”

Father interrupted his proud bawling to glance at the letter and scoff. “Why, he failed the exam of course,” he said. “Or maybe they didn’t let him enter in the first place. He’s obviously already on the way back.”

Nash stretched out his arms, crossing them behind his head. “So lame,” he said. “Why’d he ever think he’d get in, anyway? That’s so dumb.”

Maybe it was just Lily’s imagination, but somehow she couldn’t help feeling like he looked a little disappointed.

“Don’t worry about him,” she said gently, sighing a little as Nash bristled and stuck out his tongue. “Asta is strong, isn’t he? I’m sure we’ll hear from him too very soon.”

Father cleared his throat and nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “For now we need to write back… Do we still have money left for a letter?”

Another silence.

“We do… don’t we?”

“Uh…”

“Oh, rats. We still need to pay for half the tatoes, do we?” Father groaned and muttered something that wasn’t befitting of a priest at all. “Curses. Fine. Looks like our reply still has to wait a few more days, after all.”

\---

Asta thought he had been excited to see Noelle and Vanessa enter the restaurant, but his amazement back then was nothing compared to what he was feeling now.

Assembled at the door, crowding together and jostling and pushing as if they couldn’t make up their mind on who should enter first, were not one, not two, but seven whole Magic Knights. Noelle and Vanessa he recognized; the former looked annoyed and perfectly disgruntled to be here again so soon while the latter was smiling and waving with the cheeriest smile on her face. Crowding behind the two stood two boys around eighteen or nineteen, one dressed up and scowling like a delinquent, the other smiling so widely Asta wondered how he didn’t split at the ears. A very tiny girl of undefinable age pushed between them, babbling on and on about food and decidedly not interested in anything else.

And then, a little further back, were two faces Asta recognized. Those two… hadn’t they been at the exam before? That scary, looming giant and the exasperated young man, both of whom looked like they’d rather be in any other place but here…

“Is that the guy, Lady Noe?” the delinquent asked, leaning heavily on Vanessa’s shoulder and staring at Asta, scrutinizing him like a rare animal species he had never seen before. “Is it the no-magic kid?”

The smiley boy perked up, jumping and climbing onto the delinquent’s shoulders. “Hm, he looks normal,” he said. “Hey, boy, are you strong? Stronger than me? Wanna fight me?”

“What the– get off my shoulders, dammit!”

“Nope! I have the best view from here!”

“I said get off!”

“Boys, careful–”

That was as far as they got before they lost balance and Vanessa and the two boys stumbled and all fell forward on top of each other.

Asta’s body moved on instinct. “Watch out!” he shouted, leaping into their path, catching Vanessa and throwing his entire weight against the pile of Magic Knights, steadying them out until they all regained their balance.

“That was close!” he said with a sheepish laugh as the others stared at him with varying degrees of surprise. “Everything all right?”

Without warning a large hand reached across the other Knights’ heads and grabbed him by the hair, yanking him roughly towards the group.

“Hey, kid,” the hulking man growled, and suddenly Asta remembered his name again – Captain Yami. He’d recognize that grip and that death glare anywhere…

He was doomed. This time for real.

“Ye-Ye-Yes!” he yelped, struggling feebly against the grip. “Ow! I’m sorry! What did I do this time?”

The grip on his skull tightened to a crushing strength. Asta found himself lifted up from the ground and dangled in the air, just high enough to leave him unable to reach the ground with the tips of his toes.

“You.” Piercing eyes locked with his own, furious and smoldering. “What you did just now…”

Asta gulped and prayed for his death to be quick and painless.

“You’re a pretty strong one, huh?”

Asta choked on air. The Magic Knights around him looked various levels of shocked. If Yami’s grip on his head hadn’t kept him in place, he would have face-planted the floor. “Uh… what?”

The hand on his head abruptly let go, and he crash-landed and stumbled back on the ground. Before he could regain his balance and recover, there was a rough pat on his shoulder, and he nearly fell over forward into the group that hastily backed away in front of him.

“You heard me.” Pushing through his companions, Captain Yami came to stand in front of Asta, the scowl on his face by a wide and only slightly less terrifying grin. “You got some strength and reflexes there, kid! Trained hard for this, huh?”

Asta blinked owlishly. The gears in his brain turned at full speed. Wait… what was happening? Was he being acknowledged? Praised? By a Magic Knight? A captain, no less?

And then it hit him.

The widest grin spread all over his face. Joy spread throughout his body, bright and bubbling and tingling, a flutter of energy and hope he hadn’t felt in a long, long time. Definitely not since the exam. He hadn’t felt unhappy lately, but something had been missing, he realized. A little spark. A little energy. A little bit of the feeling that had brought him here in the first place.

“Yes!” he burst out, beaming and bowing so low he almost knocked face-first into Noelle. “Thank you very much!”

“Who said you could be so loud, you moron?”

“Right! Sorry! Thank you!”

“Shut up already, Stupidsta! Take us to a table and give us food already, we’re all hungry!”

“Yes ma’am!”

Asta turned and disappeared into the restaurant with a smile. He felt good. So good. Nothing had really happened, but he couldn’t help but hope. Not that he believed the Black Bulls would let him into the Magic Knights just like that, of course not. But they could give him advice. Some of them were bound to know how to get strong enough to get in, right? And then he could ace the exam and get closer to his dream next year!

_ Just you wait, Yuno. _

_ I’m closer to catching up to you than ever before! _


	17. The First Opening

“An escort mission?”

Yuno blinked up at Klaus in surprise. Out of all the things he had expected today’s task to be, this definitely wasn’t it. Was this truly a job for elite Magic Knights? Compared to all the other things they were doing on a daily basis that seemed so… small.

“You heard me,” Klaus said impatiently, adjusting his glasses. “I was surprised myself, but the one we need to escort is the son of a high-ranking and influential nobleman. Our client is content with nothing but the best, so the best we will be!”

“I see,” Yuno said, even as he wondered if some nobles didn’t have anything else to do. “And I have to come?”

“If it was up to me, I would refuse to take you.” Klaus stared down at him over the rim of his glasses. “Unfortunately, our client personally requested you.”

Yuno’s eyes went wide. “Me?”

That was definitely unusual. A noble who had requested him personally? An influential one, no less? He thought as far back as he could, but he couldn’t think of anyone who might fit that description. Mimosa and the rest of the Golden Dawn aside, did he even know any nobles? And if not, then how did those people know him?

“Indeed,” Klaus said with a definite tinge of irritation in his voice. “The one we will be escorting is the one you faced in the Magic Knights entrance exams. His name is Salim de Hapshass.”

Yuno thought back. He still couldn’t put a face to that name, but at least he remembered the situation, the vague silhouette. He remembered that guy challenging him, showing off and losing. That was it. No appearance, no name, not even his powers. His mind had been completely focused on Asta and his goal.

_ Asta… _

Yuno shook off the thought. He wouldn’t think about him right now; he had other things to focus on, more important things. He had a job to do, after all. This had been the first time someone had ever requested him personally, and he couldn’t blow his chance. If he did well on this, it would be yet another step closer to becoming Wizard King.

“Okay,” he said. “Where are we going?”

\---

By the time Rebecca came to see where Asta had disappeared to, the group around the table had turned into a highly remarkable scene.

Asta had somehow been pulled into the gathering of Magic Knights. All of them sat crowded around a table that was definitely too small for the group, sitting on chairs they had visibly snatched from all the surrounding tables. Someone – presumably Asta, she thought – had already brought them drinks, and there was a stack of menus lying on the table between them, but aside from the tiny girl who had completely disappeared behind one of them the entire group was much too busy talking.

“Impossible!” Noelle was shouting when Rebecca approached. “I refuse to believe a single part of this story!”

“I don’t,” said a childlike boy with spiky black hair. “I believe you, Asta!”

“W-Wha–”

“Same here,” said the hulking figure next to Asta, someone who Rebecca instantly recognized as Yami Sukehiro, captain of the Black Bulls. “I saw this guy in the exams. No reason for him to hide his magic in those if he’s aiming for a Magic Knight, so shut up.”

Noelle sat up straight, blushing furiously. “But– but–”

Asta shrugged. “Told ya.”

“It’s okay, Lady Noe!” shouted a scowling delinquent type. “I believe Mr. Yami, but… no magic at all? Not even a Grimoire? That can’t be right! Hey, kid!” He stood up, leaning across the table to scowl menacingly in Asta’s face. “You’re not hiding anything ‘cause you’re embarrassed your magic’s too weak, are ya?”

Asta jolted. “What? No!” he burst out. “I wish though!”

“Ah, but Magna is right,” Vanessa piped in. “You may have a tiny little bit, but not enough to draw it out. There are items to help with that, you know?”

Asta’s eyes lit up. The hope sparking in his heart was written all over his face, plain for everyone around him to see.

“Items…?”

“Yeah, magical items!” Vanessa stretched across the table, peering at him from below. “There’s all kinds of them. You can come look at them sometime, I’ve been meaning to get one for Elly so she–”

The rest of her sentence was drowned out by Noelle’s frantic wail.

\---

Honestly, Yuno had no idea why the three of them were here in the first place.

So maybe Salim de Hapshass was rich and influential, fine. Maybe the reason why he had to travel to the border was important, even if he refused to give any details beyond big phrases and meaningful expressions. But Yuno still had no idea why on earth he wanted three bodyguards. Salim’s own impressive magical powers aside, wasn’t the journey a little too peaceful to need such an escort?

Mimosa, who was floating on her broom across from him, seemed to be thinking the same thing, going solely by her increasingly confused expression. Although, honestly, Yuno could never truly tell what Mimosa was thinking. For all he knew she might as well be thinking of flying pigs, or whatever it was that kept going through her head all day.

In all honesty though, he thought, the only one who seemed to be taking this mission seriously was Klaus, who was navigating the vessel Salim was sat in and paid such close attention to the way that Yuno couldn’t help wondering how he didn’t get a headache. Then again, this was Klaus. Klaus Lunettes took everything seriously, and that counted doubly for any mission entrusted to him.

All of that, however, was decidedly less weird than Salim’s neverending attempts to talk to him about anything and everything. Starting by his missions since entering the Magic Knights and his first successes, his questions moved more and more into personal territory, asking him more and more about his personal background and motivations until Yuno started to fly ahead of the group under the excuse of scouting out the way, simply to escape his increasingly nosy questions.

It wasn’t even that he disliked Salim as a person, although it definitely played a part; that noble had something slimy and sketchy to him, an arrogance and self-importance paired with a slithery nature he couldn’t quite grasp. Yuno couldn’t deal with people like him, but what he was even worse at dealing with was the amount of personal information this guy was trying to get out of him. Why did he want to know all that? They had only met once. He would definitely hate to tell a person like that all about his childhood and his promise to Asta.

And yet–

“Oh, and Yuno,” Salim remarked, leaning so far out of Klaus’s flying carriage that Mimosa gave a yelp and Klaus started to scold him. “This is only a suspicion, but did that boy with no magic come from your village too, by any chance?”

It took Yuno all of his self-restraint to not spin around in midair.

“He did,” he said coolly. “Why?”

“Oh, I was only curious.” Salim leaned even further towards Yuno, and Klaus shot him a horrified stare before giving in and motioning Yuno to fly closer to their client. “You knew him well, didn’t you? I saw you shout his name when he went down… what was it again?”

Yuno ignored that part of the question. “We were childhood friends,” he said instead. “We grew up together.”

“Childhood friends?” Salim raised his eyebrows. “Oh, I’d like to know more about him then! What kind of person is the childhood friend of the one who defeated me, I wonder?”

Yuno squirmed a little. Something about the question felt off. But what made him even more uncomfortable were the all-too-curious glances from his companions that went with it.

“He’s loud,” he said, gazing into the distance as old memories replayed in his head, filling his chest with an emotion he could neither name nor comprehend. It was like a pull, a magnet inside his chest that was drawn towards Asta without knowing where he was, the urge to cross all the distances between them and pull him into his arms and hold on until this feeling subsided. “And he’s stupid and short and annoying. But…” A small smile made its way onto his face as he pictured Asta running around the orphanage, disappearing into the forest, lifting weights until his body gave in and coming back battered and bruised but happy and grinning. The way he had always been… the way he should always be.

“He works hard,” Yuno continued quietly, almost forgetting about Salim and Klaus and Mimosa and everyone else. “Harder than anyone. That’s what makes him so strong.”

A long silence followed his words, and Yuno blinked and turned around to find everyone staring at him. He quickly averted his gaze again. This had to be the first time he had shown this much emotion in front of them, he realized.

“Yuno…” Klaus said at last, sounding a little moved before clearing his throat and returning back to normal. “Well, I suppose it’s only natural for a commoner to care about his commoner friends. Birds of a feather do flock together.”

Yuno sent him a glare that went unnoticed. Had Klaus not been his senior and superior in rank, he would have said something.  _ Who cares if he’s a commoner, _ he wanted to say.  _ He’s still stronger than all of you together. Not that you’d understand that since all you care about is magic. _

“But he didn’t make it into the Magic Knights, did he?” Salim remarked and smiled in slight distaste. “Of course not, without magic. What became of him?”

Yuno closed his eyes. He could tell the truth… or he could lie.

Or he could tell a half-truth.

“I think he went back home.”

\---

“Well,” Vanessa said where she was floating on her broom, “shall we go?”

The rest of the party had already left. The inn had closed for the evening, the last of the guests lingering outside and taking delight in the late summer night. Noelle already sat mounted behind Vanessa on the broom, holding onto her waist and looking anything but happy to share her seat with yet another rider, much less a boy and a commoner like Asta. Not that he minded much. People looking down on him for one thing or another was nothing new, after all.

Besides, right now, he didn’t care. Not about Noelle’s disdain, not about anything. The only thing that mattered was where they were going and what they were about to do.

A magical item. His chest fluttered with excitement. Something that could bring out hidden magic in people, something that could unleash his powers. Maybe it would give him at least a tiny spark, like the kids back at home had. Maybe it would be strong enough to get him a Grimoire, no matter how weak and tiny. He didn’t care what. He just wanted something, anything, the smallest kind of improvement over having no magic at all.

“Let’s go!” he shouted, ignoring the inevitable yells of “Shut up!” from the windows above. These people had no idea. No idea how much this short trip could change his life.

Smiling from ear to ear, he swung himself up and mounted the broom behind Vanessa and Noelle.

Vanessa turned around to make sure they were all seated safely, then she leaned forward and kicked off the ground.

Asta had never flown on a broom before. Never in his life had he felt this sensation of being launched in the air, his feet losing touch with the ground, the earth beneath him quickly gaining distance as they rose higher and higher into the air. Wind played with his hair, tugging at his clothes, whistling in his ears as the landscape became smaller and smaller beneath his feet, growing more remote until it didn’t look like people lived there anymore, starting to resemble one of those hyper-detailed, unaffordable doll landscapes he had only ever seen through the windows of stores that would throw him out at the door for his wardrobe alone.

“We’re flying!” he wanted to shout, but his voice failed him. “We’re flying,” he rasped out, clinging to Noelle’s sides like he was about to be picked up by the wind and lifted even higher into the air, the euphoria in his veins elating him far above the world, all his fears and worries remaining, small and insignificant, forgotten on the ground.

“Of course we’re flying,” Noelle replied, clinging to Vanessa in her turn. “What did you expect, Stupidsta? Don’t tell me you have never flown on a broom before!”

“‘Course I haven’t!” Asta shouted back against the wind. “Kinda hard to do without magic!”

Noelle started to say something, but at that moment Vanessa started to swoop down again, none-too-gently lowering them towards an ordinary-looking street on the opposite side of the city.

“Here we are already,” she chimed, braking the broom so hard her two passengers nearly fell off and staggered to the ground with shaky legs.

Asta looked right and left, fully expecting some sort of door or window that led to a big building with countless mages rushing in and out of the entrance, or maybe a sketchy enchanted shop full of magical items, but wherever he looked there was nothing. There were only a few old houses with tiny windows, a few empty barrels, and a scrawny cat chasing a scurrying group of mice. In front of them the street came to a dead end that consisted solely of a blank, windowless wall.

“Here?” he asked, even as Noelle seemed to be thinking the same thing. “You sure we didn’t end up in the wrong place?”

Vanessa only smiled, took her broom, and headed straight for the wall.

“It’s hidden,” she said with a wink. “Follow me, okay?”

\---

“Are you sure you want to stop in this village?” Klaus asked for what felt like the fifteenth time, looking increasingly tense as he lowered the carriage. “I can only repeat myself, but if you are in any danger on the way, it is vital that we reach our goal as soon as we can.”

If Salim was a little annoyed with him asking by now, he didn’t let it show. His smile was still the same as always, unreadable and a little arrogant, but then again it was simply how his face looked like. It didn’t have to mean he wasn’t genuinely curious. “I appreciate your concern,” he said, leaning over the side of the carriage to spy the village below. “But my father was overly concerned when he made me hire you. If we can afford it at all, I’d be absolutely  _ delighted _ to see the village Yuno grew up in.”

Klaus hesitated. “Well…”

“Besides,” Salim continued with his eyebrows rising up high, “you wouldn’t deny a request from your client, would you?”

Adjusting his glasses, Klaus gave an exasperated sigh and steered towards the orphanage. “As you wish,” he said. “I suppose a short break will not kill us.”

The wind in their hair, the sun slowly setting in the distance, the four of them gently descended to the ground, a familiar landscape spreading out in front of Yuno’s eyes.

_ Home. _ It hadn’t been that long since he had last been here, and yet it felt like an eternity. Spring had given way to summer, the fresh green of the grass a darker shade now, the crops growing on the surrounding fields, soon ready to harvest. Poppies peeked out from in between the green and gold, cheerful spots of red that the children loved to pick and take home to put in an empty pot or cup until they wilted. The smell of dry grass tickled his nose, mingling with the scents from the nearby forest, dark green and rustling quietly in the wind.

Yuno knew this image, these sounds, these smells. But more than anything he knew the building in the middle, the only home he had known for fifteen years.

His family should be here, he thought. Father and Sister Lily and the kids, busying themselves the way they always did at this time of the year, making dinner or chopping wood or taking off the laundry. He hadn’t expected to see them again so soon. But more than anything…

Would Asta be here?

It was unlikely, he knew. The way back home should take at least as long as the way to the city had taken, and right now he didn’t have Yuno with him to find the way. Without supernatural help he should still be somewhere on the way. But at least they might have heard something from him. At least they might know where he was and what had happened to him.

That was what Yuno told himself. And yet, as he descended from the sky, part of him couldn’t help expecting a familiar voice shouting his name and yelling at him for getting so far ahead in their competition.

“Oh no, do we have visitors?”

Yuno set his jaw. This voice, although familiar and dear, wasn’t Asta’s. Of course it wasn’t. But apparently that wasn’t enough for part of him to give up hope entirely.

“Sister,” he said to the figure hurrying towards him, looking like little more than an oversized laundry basket on legs. Yuno squinted his eyes, but he couldn’t make out any of Asta’s things among the laundry. “We’ve come to drop by on a mission.”

Setting down the laundry basket, Sister Lily took a look at Yuno, then at the two Magic Knights at his side and finally at Salim, her kind blue eyes growing wider and wider. “The Golden Dawn!” she exclaimed at last, quickly fixing her clothes and curtseying in front of the nobles. “If I had known, I would have looked a little more presentable… My apologies! We don’t have much, but if we can help you with anything–”

“Yuno! It’s Yuno!”

Yuno barely had time to turn around before he was tackled and knocked down by three kids at once. Sister Lily gave a yelp, leaping to pick them back off him and offer a hand to help him back to his feet. “Kids, you can’t do that anymore!” she scolded the trio. “Yuno is a Magic Knight now, you have to treat him with respect, you see?”

The children blinked owlishly and nodded. Three small pairs of eyes rested on his face, then on his Golden Dawn robe, growing to the size of saucers with incredulity and awe. Yuno could understand them. The fabric of his robe was worth more than everything else he owned put together.

Sister Lily turned to greet the others, and Yuno saw with some gratitude that both Mimosa and Klaus were at least polite to her, Mimosa smiling and chattering while Klaus gave a slight unwilling bow, stiffly apologizing for the inconvenience with a sharp glance towards Salim, as if to say he was to blame for all this. Salim himself didn’t seem to notice, preferring to take a low bow to Sister Lily and take her hand to kiss it in a way that would definitely have driven Asta up the wall if he had been here to see it.

Was he here?

Yuno couldn’t see him, but that didn’t have to mean anything. Asta was usually not at the orphanage at this time of the day anyway, either busying himself on the fields or in the village or training in the forest. He idly wondered if he’d have the time to go looking for him while he was here. Probably not. But if he was–

“Yuno, Yuno?”

A tug on his sleeve made him glance down, where Holo had walked back up to him as carefully as if he was made of glass, peering up at him with shy eyes.

“How’s Asta doing?”

Yuno swallowed. He didn’t know why, but suddenly he felt like all eyes were fixed on him, hanging onto his lips, impatiently waiting for an answer he didn’t have.

What should he say?

_ I’m sorry. He didn’t make the exam, and I don’t know what happened to him since. I thought he returned home. _

Of course not! He already knew he had failed them all. There was no need to say it out loud!

“We haven’t heard a thing from him,” Aruru said from behind Holo. “Is he coming home soon?”

What should he say? What should he say?

“He’s…”

“Asta? Your friend’s name is Asta?”

Yuno stopped in his tracks. The one who had spoken these words wasn’t part of his family. It wasn’t Salim or Klaus either.

It was Mimosa.

“Yeah,” he said, an anxious pounding in his chest as he spoke. He didn’t want to hope. He had already hoped in vain so many times. He shouldn’t now. And yet… “Do you… know the name?”

Mimosa blinked, confused. “I thought I told you,” she said. “It’s the name of that magic-less boy my cousin encountered the other day–”

Yuno forgot about his manners. Forgot about everything. Who cared about reservations. Who cared about being a Magic Knight and having to behave himself. He had made that mistake before. Too many times already.

His body moved within a split second. Before he knew what he was doing, his hands had grabbed Mimosa’s shoulders, yanking her forward as he stared at her with hope and greed in his frantic eyes.

“ _ Where is he? _ ”

\---

Asta wanted to shout out his wonder, but for once the image in front of him had left him completely speechless.

Hidden behind this wall, concealed from normal eyes, lay a whole different world. It was dark, dark in a way that had nothing to do with the falling twilight outside, as if this was a place where the rising and setting of the sun had no meaning at all. Warm, flickering lights lit it at every step, hundreds and thousands of candles, the smell of smoke and something sweet and stuffy lingering heavily in the air, carrying the promise of secrets and mysteries to unveil, spells beyond his imagination. Booths and stalls spread out in every direction, some of them simple ones made of dark wood, others more like tents, covered in heavy, shiny cloth and some of them decorated with complex ornaments that looked like they had a hidden meaning.

And everywhere, everywhere he looked, people were crowding the street. No matter how late it was getting, this place looked like it was only just coming to life, everyone from teens his age to snowy-haired seniors swarming the stalls, negotiating with the salesmen, eyeing strange-looking items, betting money, arguing with each other. The entire place was filled with colors and voices, so many colors and voices that Asta couldn’t decide where to look, where to listen first.

“Wha– Wha–” Noelle stuttered out next to him, somehow managing to regain her speech. Her eyes shone and sparkled with just as much excitement as Asta himself was feeling. “Wha-Wha-What is this place?”

Vanessa smiled. “The black market,” she said. “Be careful. You don’t want to get robbed or scammed, do you?”

Noelle instinctively held onto her belongings more closely while Asta loudly proclaimed, “I have nothing!”

“Shut up, Stupidsta! Don’t proclaim that so loudly!”

“Actually,” Vanessa piped in with a wink, “that’s a good strategy. If they think you’re poor, they’ll give things to you for a lower price because there’s nothing to get.” She put a finger to her lips. “But shh, don’t tell anyone, okay?”

Asta raised his head with pride. Noelle went pink next to him.

“Okay!” Asta said, pumping his fist with newfound motivation. “Where are we going first?”

Vanessa smiled, making an all-encompassing gesture. “Look around,” she said. “They’re all selling magical items here, so you can find the perfect one for you!”

Asta and Noelle exchanged a glance, as if to ask each other where to go. Noelle raised her head with a scoff and demonstratively marched off into a random direction. Asta gave a shrug, then he headed for the booths on the other side, feeling intensely for the one item that would call for him. His heartbeat pounded and reverberated in his ears, his veins buzzing with excitement. He was close. He was so close. His item was in here somewhere. And once he had found it… there was no stopping him anymore.

_ You better hold on tight, Yuno. Here I come! _

“Ah, youth,” an old lady muttered under her breath, smiling where she sat in her tent, observing the street outside.

The man across from her glanced up from his cards, squinting with justified suspicion. “What did you say?”

She laughed and waved it off. “Nothing, nothing,” she said. “You young’un won’t understand it till you’re as old as me.”

_ Not that I’m actually that much older than you, _ Julius Novachrono thought under his disguise.  _ But it’s not like you have to know that. _

After all, how should the Wizard King scout out new magic if not incognito?


	18. The Blade

It didn’t take long until Asta lost sight of Noelle and Vanessa. In the crowd of the black market it was hard to keep track of people, and his height didn’t exactly make it easier to maintain an overview without climbing onto one of the stalls. Not that he worried. Vanessa had been here before, and Noelle should be fine. If she was a Magic Knight, she was strong enough to protect herself alone if push came to shove. Right now he had more important matters on his mind, anyway.

He had passed rows and rows of booths, but for now none of the items had spoken to him in any way. They were all beautiful and weird and fascinating, enchanted jewelry lying next to toys that seemed to have a life of their own, piles of dusty books in obscure languages alternating with bottles of glowing and bubbling potions Asta almost felt tempted to try. He didn’t, for now. Rebecca had given him his pay for the past few weeks earlier, but it wasn’t much, and he needed to save it up for when he actually needed it.

Asta narrowed his eyes. How exactly was he supposed to recognize a magical item, anyway? All of this stuff seemed touched up with magic in some way, but he had no idea what it was for. Most of it radiated some kind of sketchy aura, and the rest of it seemed so innocuous that he highly doubted it was truly good for anything.

“Can I help you, young man?”

Asta glanced up. The one who had spoken was a lady of indefinable age, her face mostly obscured by a dark hood, her voice quiet and velvety like the fabric of her hood, creeping over his skin like smoke. Spread out on the stall she was guarding were countless items he had never seen before, some of them looking like almost ordinary clothes or jewelry, others so oddly shaped that he didn’t know how to put a name on them at all.

Should he ask this lady? He figured he might as well. She might look a little sketchy, but then again this entire place was sketchy. And fascinating. And probably worth it.

“I’m looking for a magical item,” he said. “One that helps draw out my magic… or something.” He looked at the hooded figure with curious eyes. “D’you have anything like that?”

“A magic-enhancing item, huh.” The lady lifted a hand, long fingers with black nails and countless gold rings sliding out from underneath her wide sleeve to brush over the display, as if feeling which items would be suitable for Asta’s purpose. “We’ll see, we’ll see… oh, here we have one.” Her fingers closed carefully around a small, ordinary-looking thing, picking it up and extending her arm to place it into Asta’s open hand. “Put it on and try it.”

Asta glanced into his hand. The thing she had given him was a small pendant, consisting of nothing but a single jet-black stone that seemed to swallow all light, framed by a gold setting holding it to a sleek chain in exotic-looking patterns. It didn’t stand out at all… and yet…

His fingers brushed over the stone, then the chain. Somehow it did look enchanted. Part of him expected his body to respond to this enchantment, react with the magic that had been hidden for so long, but nothing happened. Of course not, he thought. He should put it on and then try.

Gently, carefully, Asta put the chain around his neck, trailing his fingers over the stone again. It really was pitch-black, like the night sky above Hage when it was too cloudy to see the moon and stars. It wasn’t shiny either. Smooth, but not shiny.

_I wonder if it works._

Asta’s hand closed around the stone. His heart pounded in his chest, the pulse throbbing in his fingers as they gripped the item tighter. He took a deep breath, stretched out his free hand. Channeled all the energy in his body into the tips of his fingers, focusing on the stone in his hand, the magic hidden inside it.

“Come, magic!”

Nothing happened.

Asta stared at his hand, then at the stone, then back at his hand. Not yet, he thought. He wasn’t quitting just yet. One more try. One more try, and he would give up on this item for sure.

But the second try brought no change, and neither did the third or fourth one. After the fifth one Asta finally understood there was no point and handed the item back with a sigh.

“Don’t worry, boy,” the lady said, although she sounded a little taken aback all the same. Naturally, Asta thought. She probably hadn’t expected him to have no magic at all.

“It can take some time,” she muttered, placing back the pendant and searching her display for more suitable items. “Not every item works on everyone. You simply need to search.”

Asta straightened up and nodded enthusiastically. This lady was telling him not to give up, so he’d be damned if he would. This wasn’t over yet! One more try, one more item. He could always go further. He wasn’t giving up yet!

Not after one failed item.

Not after two. Or five. Or ten.

Not even after he had tried every single one on the mysterious lady’s booth, and still not a single one of them had worked.

“Well… this is strange indeed,” the woman said, not even bothering to hide her confusion this time. “To think you’re this immune to all my items… If I didn’t know better, I’d say you don’t have any magic at all.”

Asta cracked a wry smile.

“Actually,” he said, “I’m pretty sure that’s really how it is.”

The lady looked like she was about to ask questions, but Asta turned and walked away. He didn’t feel much like talking right now. He didn’t feel like explaining himself either. Normally this kind of thing would be nothing, and he could shout something about not giving up and carry on like he had before, but right now he didn’t have the energy. Something seemed to weigh on his mind, pulling down his body in a way he couldn’t fight no matter how much he had trained.

Was it really this hard to find a magical item to fit him?

He thought of the day the Grimoires had been distributed, the Magic Knights exam. He was the only one his age who still didn’t have a Grimoire. He was the only one above the age of five or six who still didn’t know what his magic was, who had never seen it or used it in his life. This wasn’t normal. This hadn’t been normal from the beginning. Ever since childhood he had been different from the others, powerless where everyone else could their magic with ease.

Why had he still hoped a magical item would be able to change things?

Over and over he had hoped. Over and over he had kept going, fully counting on his powers manifesting themselves at some point, hoping for a miracle that never came. No matter how much these things could help everyone else, he seemed completely immune. Whatever he did, nothing changed. He was still the same as always, trapped in a world full of magic users and doomed to watching from the sidelines forever.

What was he doing?

It all seemed so pointless. All his attempts led to nothing, all his hopes ending in disappointment as he scrambled and scrambled and stayed on the same spot, watching as everyone around him moved on as if this was all a leisurely stroll. He was getting left behind. No, he had already been left behind.

_Should I really keep trying?_

He had tried to push that question out of his head for so long. Every time it had appeared he had responded by working even harder, keeping himself busy so that the doubts wouldn’t resurface. But now he was here, in a place full of magical items and more magical people, unable to absorb a single spark of their power, and suddenly he couldn’t shake the thought anymore.

_It’s not worth it, right? Even if I keep searching, I’m not gonna find anything anyway._

He shouldn’t think that. Not thinking that had been his strength. Not giving up was his magic. If he lost that too, then what would be left of him?

_If I really have no magic… none at all… what do I do?_

Why was he asking himself that? Everyone had magic. Even he had to have it somewhere, hidden so deep inside himself that he couldn’t get it out. He simply needed to get it out. And get it out he would. Sooner or later.

Would he really?

What if there was really nothing?

What if he was doomed to staying this way forever, weak and powerless?

He could never become a Magic Knight. He couldn’t even think of becoming Wizard King. Yuno would get further and further ahead of him and drift out of his reach until they barely recognized each other anymore, and he would be left here, all alone on the ground, watching the one who had once run beside him move to heights where he couldn’t see him at all.

It didn’t have to be the truth. He didn’t want it to be.

But what if it was?

Shouldn’t he get used to this thought instead of fighting on and trying for the impossible? Wouldn’t it be easier if he simply arranged himself with the way things were? Wouldn’t it hurt less to just drop everything and let go?

Go back home to his siblings and Father and Sister Lily.

Live a normal life with everyone else.

Did that really sound so bad? He could take over the orphanage someday. Take in new orphaned kids just like him, watch them grow. Maybe get married someday, either to Sister Lily or to someone else he had yet to meet. Grow old in the village while watching the kids around him grow up and go their own ways.

And never do anything notable. Never change the world. Never leave his mark on history.

No, that wasn’t the life he wanted to live. He wanted to do something. He wanted to make a point to people, prove them wrong. Someday he wanted to stand up there with Yuno, showing everyone in the country that it didn’t matter where they were born or whose child they were or how much innate magical power they had.

He didn’t want to stop hoping. He didn’t want to cave. Even if it broke him. Even if he had to fail over and over and over and over, a million times over until he either made it or died trying.

“Alright!” he shouted, pumping his fists and ignoring the way people around him turned to stare. “I’m gonna keep looking! Magical items, here I come!”

And still he couldn’t shake the tiny spark of doubt in his mind.

\---

“ _Where is he?_ ”

Yuno knew he was shaking, but he didn’t care. His hands clutched Mimosa’s shoulders, gripping into the fabric, hope and panic and desperation mingling inside him into a deadly swirl.

The others were staring at him, he knew. His family must be confused, disappointed that he had left Asta alone without any idea where he was or what had happened to him and if he was safe, and Klaus must be shocked by everything about his behavior, probably simply too speechless to scold him right now. Yuno didn’t care. None of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was that he finally, finally knew what had become of Asta.

“Huh? Ah… I-I’m not sure…” Mimosa managed out, visibly confused by his reaction. “My cousin said he’s working at an inn in the city, but I don’t remember the name…”

Yuno took a deep breath, then he let go and stepped back. _Restrain yourself_ , he thought. What was he doing, pressuring her like that? It wasn’t like that would help her remember anything. And yet, as he stood there waiting for her to add any details, he had to resist the urge to strangle her.

“No, I don’t recall,” Mimosa said with an apologetic smile. “But I can check her letters again when we get back to the headquarters. How’s that?”

 _Not soon enough,_ Yuno thought. _If I wait, I’m going to lose him again. I can sense that._

He took a deep breath. _Calm down_. He was still on a mission. He was a Magic Knight now, and he had a responsibility to get this job done. Salim had requested him, even if he still didn’t understand the reason why. He was no longer the Yuno who could drop everything and go after Asta on a whim.

“That’s fine,” he said blankly, not letting his face or voice betray a single emotion. “Don’t forget it.”

He just hoped they would end this mission as soon as possible.

\---

How many magical items had he tried?

How many booths had he gone through?

How long had he been here?

Where were the others?

Where was he?

Asta didn’t know anything anymore. He had lost all sense of time and space. It was like he had been in this street for weeks, shut off from the rising and setting of the sun outside, never pausing, never sleeping, mechanically trying on item after item after item while being pulled deeper and deeper into the ever-changing maze that was the black market. Sometimes he tried to look back and found all the booths behind him looking unfamiliar, as if someone had put them apart and set up new ones in the indefinite amount of time he hadn’t been looking.

He was tired, he supposed. Hungry, too. He couldn’t know for sure. His body simply kept moving mechanically, incessantly, like the clockwork of the large clock in the church at home. Which stalls had he tried before? Which ones hadn’t he? They all looked unfamiliar. But he had to have looked at _something_ , right?

Well, he told himself, one more round wouldn’t hurt. One more try, one more step, over and over. He wasn’t giving up yet. Not until his body gave way underneath him.

Straightening his back, Asta headed towards the nearest booth he didn’t seem to have tried when something caught his eye, stopping him in his tracks.

For a moment he wasn’t sure what it was. He had only glimpsed it from the corner of his eye, and when he looked around he couldn’t initially spot it again. Had it been an illusion? His imagination? Had someone removed it the second he had tried to look for it?

No, that wasn’t it. It was there. He simply needed to focus.

Narrowing his eyes, Asta stared intensely into the direction where he had glimpsed that mysterious object, ignoring all the booths and stalls and vendors until he knew exactly what he had been looking for.

It was a sword. Not a fancy ornate one, and not particularly elegant either. If anything it looked rough, unrefined and somehow… _mundane_. Like it had never seen a spark of magic in its life, created completely by the hard work of human hands.

Enchanted, Asta stepped closer, eyeing the weapon. Its material was strange. It was a solid black metal he had never seen before, similar to steel but not quite, looking much heavier than an ordinary sword. And it was huge. From a distance it had been hard to tell its exact size, but now that he stood here, right in front of it, he could tell it was almost as tall as he was and at least as wide as a shovel.

“You want this thing, kid?”

Asta jumped. In all his fascination with the sword he hadn’t noticed the man standing next to it, not very tall but stocky and heavy, his face and hair blackened by soot and his hands so large they looked like dinner plates. But the eyes behind his bushy eyebrows were bright as they met Asta’s with a curious, piercing gaze.

Did he want that sword?

He should say no, some part of Asta thought. He didn’t have that much money, and he needed it for a magical item. If he spent it on this sword, he might as well give up on using magic for now. And who knew if he’d ever get another chance to come to this place.

But his intuition was telling him to forget about magical items. It had to be this sword, it whispered. This sword or nothing. Rough and mundane and completely un-magical as it looked, he couldn’t shake the feeling that this blade was what he needed. That this blade… had something only he could use.

“Yes!” he said before he could change his mind again. “How much does it cost?”

“Cost? Hmm.” The man squinted at him, then at the sword, then back at him. “Forget buying this thing, can you pipsqueak even pick it up? This thing’s so heavy it takes two grown men to carry it.”

Asta’s hand twitched in the direction of the sword handle. “Please let me try it!”

The man hesitated, as if wondering if he should truly take the risk or if it wouldn’t only end in a serious injury. Then he nodded and gave Asta a hearty pat on the shoulder. “Alright, boy,” he said. “If you can lift it, I’ll give it to ya for cheap. I’m just trying to get rid of this anyway, since nobody has any use for it. Deal?”

Asta pushed up his sleeves. “Deal!”

Stepping up to the sword, Asta closed his hands around its handle and pulled at it with every ounce of strength he had in his body.

The sword scraped over the ground, then it rose into the air. Asta lowered his hips, planting his legs apart for balance as he swung its blade upwards until it pointed into the air, heavy but steady and perfectly stable.

He took a deep breath, then he swung it back down. To one side. To the other. Diagonally. The massive dark metal perfectly followed his commands, heaving itself through the air with a surprising smoothness and speed, the dull edge of the blade slicing through the shadows with nothing but brute strength.

It wasn’t heavy at all, Asta thought. Not to him. It was just the perfect weight for his hands, like an extension of his arms that had only been waiting for him to pick it up.

_Something only I can use._

Setting the sword back down, he turned towards the man, who was staring at him in open shock. His jaw was dangling off his cheeks to leave his mouth gaping wide, his eyes the size of saucers in his disbelieving face. Giving himself a shake, he took the sword from Asta’s hands and almost collapsed under the weight.

“Kid,” he said at last, “what the hell are you?”

Asta blinked in surprise. He looked at the sword, then at his own hands. “What do you mean?”

“I got this sword from someone who inherited it.” Grunting, the man propped the blade back up against the wall where it had stood before. “Guy could lift the heaviest things with his magic, but for this one he needed a carriage. No one’s ever managed to pick it up before, not even with magic. It’s like that thing’s immune.” He stared at Asta with distrust. “So, what did you do? What magic did you use to make it work on that blade?”

“None.”

“...Huh?”

“I didn’t use any magic.” Asta took the sword’s handle again, lifting it off the wall. “I just used the strength of my own arms. Like this, see?”

The man stared at the sword, then at Asta. Shook his head. Sighed.

“You’re a monster,” he muttered. “All right, you can buy this thing. How much d’you have?”

Asta pulled out the small wallet with his pay and opened it. The man counted and took out a few coins and bills.

“This much’s enough,” he said. “You keep the rest. And the sword. I’m just glad enough to be rid of it.”

Asta beamed and bowed. “Thank you very much!”

“Don’t thank me, just take the cursed thing and go!”

“Thank you!”

Picking up the sword in both hands, Asta turned around and headed back down the street, following the twinkling path of the illuminated booths towards the spot where he remembered coming from, keeping his eyes open for signs of Noelle or Vanessa. He wondered if those two had found what they were looking for. Or maybe they, too, had found something entirely different that now seemed so much better.

“Stupidsta! Stupidsta, where are you? For crying out loud… _Asta!_ ”

He stopped short, spinning his head right and left. Noelle’s voice… he could hear it clearly. Where was she? If only he was taller than the crowd…

“Noelle!” he shouted back. “I’m over here, where are you?”

“I’m in front of the gambling tent! Can’t you see me, stupid?”

“Like hell I can, the crowd’s too big! Come over here if you can see me!”

“I… I cannot!” Noelle’s voice took a distressed tone. “Hurry up!”

Pushing his way through the crowd, Asta arrived in front of the big gambling tent, half expecting someone to be robbing or harassing Noelle, only to find her alone with Vanessa. A very drunk Vanessa by the looks of it, hanging over her shoulders and babbling incoherent nonsense into the fabric of her robe.

“Crap,” Asta said, reaching around Vanessa to lift her off Noelle’s shoulders. “What happened to her?”

“The same thing as always,” Noelle said, visibly relieved to no longer need to carry her senior around on her back. “She drank too much and made a fool of herself.”

“This, uh… happens a lot?”

“That is none of your business.” Noelle turned her nose up into the air. “That aside, we have no way of going home with her in this state.”

Asta glanced at the barely-conscious lady slumping over him, then he frowned. “You’re right!” he burst out. “I can’t fly a broom! And you can’t either! ...Right?”

“I cannot,” Noelle declared proudly. “Although I did find an item to improve my control over– wait, that’s none of your business, you nosy insect!”

“I didn’t even ask! You almost told me!”

“You drew it out of me! Keep your nose out of people’s business!”

“I’m trying!”

Vanessa mumbled something into his shoulder. Asta thought he caught something about not fighting.

“Anyway,” he said, “we gotta figure out what to do–”

Someone brushed roughly past him, running down the street. Vanessa nearly fell off his back. The voice of an old lady screeched out of the tent, shocked, infuriated and distressed.

“Thief!” she shrieked. “My winnings! Stop the thief!”

Asta made a split-second decision.

“Hold her for a sec,” he told Noelle, letting Vanessa fall into her arms. “I’m gonna be right back.”

Ignoring Noelle’s protests, he grabbed his sword tighter and darted off after the thief.

Unknown to him, the old lady followed behind, merging into the crowd and following at a remarkable speed. Hidden behind the milky lenses of her glasses were the piercing bright blue eyes of the Wizard King.


	19. Birth of a Legend

“Stop!”

Asta’s voice resounded through the entire street, his footsteps echoing off the walls as he ran, darting around stalls and dodging people at lightning speed, his eyes fixed on the back of the running thief. The man in front of him glanced over his shoulder and ran faster, roughly shoving people aside and leaping over everything in his path, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. The purse with the winnings was clutched to his chest, pressed tightly against his body to shield it from anyone who tried to take it back.

“Stop it!” Asta shouted, running faster. “Thief! Give that granny her money back!”

The thief crashed through a booth, knocking over the table and display and throwing a cloaked woman off her chair. Asta leapt over the mess. His eyes didn’t leave the back of the stranger. As soon as he glanced away, he felt, the thief would take a turn and disappear on him forever.

They took a corner. Another one. Left. Right. Left. The crowd around them thinned out. The booths became fewer and further between. And then, suddenly, the street in front of them opened, and they were standing in the middle of a spacious square.

The thief hesitated. Looking right and left, he searched for an escape, some way to get out of the open and shake off his pursuer. In the middle of a wide street, an open square, he didn’t stand a chance; Asta knew the man was just as aware of it as he was.

And that meant he had to strike right now.

His feet sped up. The thief noticed too late, making another desperate sprint. Then Asta was on him, slamming him to the ground and wrestling the purse from his desperate hands.

“Give it back!” he yelled, yanking and pulling. “What do you think you’re doing, stealing other people’s money? And destroying people’s stuff, too! People make a living with these stalls!” The thief spat in his face, but Asta shook it off. “What’s your problem? You’re such a fast runner, so go out there and get an honest job with those legs!”

The thief narrowed his eyes, clicking his tongue as he twisted underneath Asta’s grip. “Brat,” he growled. “You think you know everything, huh? You think you’re telling me something new?”

“If I’m not, then why haven’t you listened to people already?” Asta shouted in his face, pushing harder against the thief’s furious struggles. “Everyone’s been telling you what’s right, so stop covering your ears and believe them!”

“You think I haven’t tried, huh, brat? You think I didn’t want to make a nice, honest career before I landed here?” The thief gave a bitter laugh. “Do you know what has to happen to a man to get him this far? I was once like you, you know.” His eyes met Asta’s, hardened and grim. “But then I learned the truth. That unless you’re a rich noble or blessed with enough powers to get on their level, you can’t hope for an honest life. Those guys up there have it easy and the rest is left fighting for scraps in the dirt. Everyone’s left fending for themselves and hoping to survive another day. That’s how it is in this bitch of a country, brat! So stop acting all high and mighty and just take the damn purse back already!”

Asta hesitated.

What should he do? His common sense was telling him to take the purse and go before the thief changed his mind and tried to escape again. But his sense of justice refused. He couldn’t simply do that and then leave, not before trying to do at least something. He didn’t know what he wanted to do or how he wanted to do it, but he refused to leave this man here without at least trying to disprove his mindset.

Not that he didn’t understand his anger, his frustration. How many times had he himself wished he could have been born with strong magical powers, one of the nobles who never had to worry about getting enough food or Magic Knight exams, who had a safe shot at becoming the Wizard King from the day they were born? How many times had he resented those blessed with money and magic for staying among themselves and not caring about the rest of their country and its people? How many times had he wished he could change the world to become more caring and just to all its inhabitants?

And yet… this guy was going about this the wrong way. He had given up long ago, fallen into the stride of the world and done the very thing the nobles and magically powerful of this world expected someone like him to do. If he had kept fighting, if he hadn’t gone down the slippery slope, how far could he have made it? How many prejudices could he have disproven, how many people could he have inspired if he had simply kept going?

“You’re wrong.”

The words came out before he could stop them. Crushing the man’s arms in his grip, keeping him pressed tightly against the ground, he glared at him with all the fury and frustration he had always felt when he saw people giving up, forsaking their goals and dreams even though nothing was impossible yet. “You didn’t have to do this!” he shouted, the words bursting out of him faster and faster, like a volcano erupting after being quiet for too long. “Nobody ever said you could only become a thief just ‘cause your magic isn’t strong enough! Except for the nobles! Don’t you understand? It’s what they want you to believe! They want you to give up so you can never prove that you can make it just as far even if you don’t have that much magic, so they can keep all they have for themselves and look down on everybody else! But they’re wrong! Look at me!” He pointed furiously at himself. “I have no magic! None at all! And even I still got a job, so don’t ever go around telling people _you_ can’t!”

“...You talk too much.”

Asta froze. The very second he realized he had let go of the thief with one hand, it dawned on him that he had made a mistake.

“I was out of mana earlier,” the thief said, the air around him gathering in swirls. “But you were clever enough to wait until I’ve restored _just_ enough energy for another attack.”

Flinching, Asta tried to grip the man’s free hand, but he couldn’t reach it anymore. A cushion of air had built around it, refusing to let him move close enough to touch him.

Asta reached for his sword, but it was too late. The cushion of air was growing, lifting him up and carrying him off the thief, suspending him in midair unable to reach or do anything.

“You…” he burst out. “What are you doing?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I may be weak, but you have made three very big mistakes.” The thief counted on his fingers. “One, you waited long enough for me to restore my magic. Two, you let go of my arm. And three…”

The air cushion wrapped all around Asta, holding his limbs in place, unable to move. Little by little the pressure around him tightened, crushing the air out of his lungs inch by inch by inch.

“You were stupid enough to tell me you don’t have any magic.”

Asta gritted his teeth. His ribcage was being crushed. He couldn’t breathe. His feet wouldn’t touch the ground… his arms wouldn’t move… if only he could get to his sword… somehow… somehow…

“If you have no magic,” the thief said, smirking and walking away with the purse, “then you can’t fight back either. And that means I just need to keep you here till I’m out of your reach, kid.”

Asta wanted to shout something, but his body refused. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. His sword… he had to get to his sword… but he… his body wasn’t doing what he wanted. The air was stronger than him. It was going to crush him, hold him in place until the thief was gone, the thief and the old lady’s money. He had failed. This stupid, stupid air–

Wait.

A realization hit him, dawning on him like the sun breaking through the clouds after a storm. It was just air, he thought. Air moved and powered by magic. But still air. He was essentially battling a weirdly-shaped, very strong wind.

And wind, no matter how strong, could always be beaten if he just pushed against it hard enough.

Asta closed his eyes. Yuno’s image appeared in front of his eyes, much younger than he was today, wide-eyed and round-faced, blowing up the greatest storm he could then muster. Asta, pushing against his wind with all the power in his body, being knocked off his feet again and again and again, standing back up, fighting against the element again, getting a little further. Until he finally got to Yuno and cut the wind from its source.

What had he learned back then? Make himself as narrow as possible. Make the wind slide past him instead of pushing against him head-on.

If he could do the same here…

Just his fingertips, Asta demanded from his body. Just the tips of his toes. That was all he asked to move for now. If he could move those…

His fingers pressed together. His feet stretched out. Then he tried to turn his arms, press his legs together. The wind resisted. But it no longer seemed too strong for him to overcome.

The wind lost its hold on him. Little by little it began to stream past him, making him sink to the ground as he freed his arms from its hold, squeezing them to his sides as he sank lower and lower until he landed on the ground with a thud.

Now or never.

The thief was still walking away, unaware that his magic had untangled and dissolved into every direction. Asta’s sword was still lying on the ground. Careful not to make another noise, he picked it up and took off after the man.

He was still within reach. He could still catch him.

But his footsteps were too loud. The thief spun around, staring at Asta, then at the spot where he should have been. “You–!” he burst out. “How did you…?! You couldn’t– you have no magic! You…”

He shook his head. “Never mind!” he shouted, turning around and sprinting across the square, heading for the nearest street. “Catch me if you can, kid!”

“I can and I will!”

With a spirited shout Asta darted after the man, running faster than he ever had before, his sword held tightly in both hands, ready to swing. The man was getting closer. He was running and running, but Asta was faster, catching up to him and reaching for his back in a matter of seconds.

“I said…”

The thief stopped so abruptly Asta almost ran into him, turning around to face him head-on.

“...catch me…”

There it was again, that swirl of air. Asta reacted too late, and suddenly a blast of wind was pushing him away from the thief once more.

“...if you can!”

Asta threw himself at the wind, but it didn’t give way. He tried again and again. No difference. The thief was right in front of him and still out of reach.

“What the hell!” he shouted against the wall of air. “You said you just had enough magic left for one attack!”

“And why,” the thief shouted back, laughing, “would you believe the words of a crook?”

Asta gritted his teeth. Damn it. He had been too trusting, and now he had been fooled. And once again he couldn’t get to this man. Not even with his sword–

_No one’s ever managed to pick it up before, not even with magic. It’s like that thing’s immune._

Following a sudden impulse, Asta lifted his sword and flung it directly against the wall of wind.

He cut through it like it wasn’t there. The air parted in front of him, and he leaped at the startled thief, knocking him over and pinning him to the ground, holding the point of his sword close to his throat.

“Hand over that granny’s purse,” he said. “Now.”

The thief gasped and scowled. Sharp, furious eyes met Asta’s own. Hands clenched tighter around the purse, as if that would somehow protect him from the sword. For a second he seemed ready to push the sword aside and lunge at Asta’s throat.

Asta lowered his sword by the tiniest fraction of an inch. The tip of the blade touched the man’s throat. “I said,” he repeated slowly, “hand it over.”

“... _Monster_.”

Clicking his tongue, the thief let go of the purse, tossing it against Asta’s feet. “Fine,” he spat. “Take the cursed cash! All because I’m out of mana and you have that… that…” He gestured at the sword at his throat. “That _thing!_ What is wrong with it?”

Picking up the purse, Asta lifted the sword from the man’s throat just enough to let him breathe. “Nothing’s wrong with it,” he said. “It just makes me stronger than you.” He stepped away. “That’s all.”

The thief didn’t move. He simply lay there, continuing to stare at Asta as if he had been trapped by a beast of the wild.

“You…” he rasped out at last. “What the hell are you?”

Asta wanted to answer, but before he got the chance the thief scrambled to his feet and ran away like his life was on the line.

\---

Why did they have to stay here for dinner? Why couldn’t they move on?

Yuno sat on coals. He didn’t know how long they had been stuck here, but it felt like an eternity. Salim kept talking and talking, praising the dry tatoes that only someone who had grown up with them could love, eating much more than he should, drinking as much to wash them down, drawing out the dinner into infinity. They should already have reached the border. They should already be on the way back. What were they still doing here? Why were they taking so long?

Now that he finally knew where Asta was, now that he had a real chance of finding him… why was he held up again? Why did he have to sit here and listen to all this meaningless chatter when every part of his body was itching to jump on his broom and fly back to the headquarters. With every second he spent sitting here his chances of finding Asta again diminished. With every moment of time wasted he became more and more likely to lose him again.

But for now he was stuck here. He couldn’t leave until Salim did, and Salim didn’t look inclined to leave anytime soon. They had run out of water, and Sister Lily had gone out to get more a moment ago. Or was it awhile ago? How long had she been gone? Should she be back already? His sense of time was so off he couldn’t tell anymore…

“Hey,” Nash said after some time, “shouldn’t Sister Lily have come back forever ago?”

Awkward silence. Everyone at the table looked at each other, but none of them had any idea where Sister Lily was.

“I’ll go look for her,” Yuno said, jumping up, every one of his tense limbs gratefully welcoming the opportunity to move. “I should be back soon.”

Before anyone else could stop him or offer to come with him, he left the table and ran outside to the well.

The well was deserted. There was no trace of Sister Lily no matter where he looked. That was odd. Had she been distracted by something? Remembered something? Lost something that she was now looking for? Was something wrong with the well, by any chance?

He peered down, but the only thing he saw in the depths was darkness. Searching, his eyes moved around the area, until they finally came to rest on something on the other side of the well.

The water pot. Filled to the brim… and then looking like it had been hastily dropped, the water splashed everywhere on the ground.

He walked around the well. There were footprints here, too heavy to be Sister Lily’s. One set… two sets… three. Sister Lily’s in the middle. There must have been a struggle here… and then…

This way.

Yuno started walking, then he ran. The footsteps were heavy, easy to follow. They led off into the bushes and towards the woods, carelessly unconcealed, almost as if waiting for someone to follow them and free Sister Lily. Yuno bit back a grim laugh. These idiots. Had they been in that much of a hurry? That would come back to bite them soon enough.

He didn’t care how many they were. He didn’t care how strong they were. He would snatch them and rip them all up at the brush of a hand. Right now he honestly didn’t have the patience to have mercy on a bunch of lowly kidnappers.

The sooner he got this all handled, the better.

\---

Asta stared at the retreating back of the thief, lowering his sword and exhaling. He hadn’t noticed at all in the heat of the fight, but now that the situation had calmed down he had started to realize just how out of breath he was. But it had been worth it, he thought. He hadn’t reformed this thief, but he had figured out some things about his sword, and most importantly he had managed to get the old lady’s money back.

Right… the old lady. He would have to go back and find her and return that purse. He just wondered if he’d still be able to recognize her. Where had she gone, anyway? Was she still at that tent? She better be, or else he’d have no idea where to look for her–

“Young man, that was delightful!”

Asta turned around, staring at the entrance of the street where he had come from. There, panting but wide-eyed and delighted, stood none other than the old lady, slowly making her way towards him with an incredulous look on her face.

“Thank you so very much,” she said, extending her hands and taking the purse from Asta’s hands with a bow. “Now here’s a young man with manners! And all without magic, was it, boy? Or is that sword of yours magical?”

“Uh…” Asta glanced down at the blade in his hands. “I don’t think so, no.”

“No magic! All by yourself against a wind magic user! What truly impressive strength!” The old lady leaned forward to take a close look at the sword. “What is that? May I hold it?”

“Uh… here you go. Careful, it’s heavy.”

The old woman reached for the hilt, tried to take it, and would have collapsed under the weight had Asta not jumped in and pulled it away in time.

“Oh dear,” she spluttered and gasped, rubbing her back. “That is heavy indeed! How did you swing it around so easily?” Her eyes sparkled with a completely un-grandmotherly excitement. “Do you use magic?”

Asta shook his head. “I just trained a lot.”

“Amazing! Truly amazing!” The old lady’s eyes shone even brighter. “Someday you can become something great with that strength, young man!”

“Eh– ah–” Asta blinked, then he gave a grin. “Y-You think so?”

“Of course! Mark my words.” Clutching the purse to her chest, the woman bowed, stepping away with a smile on her face. “Well,” she said, “I would love to chat more with you, but I have to go. I hope to hear from you again in the future, boy! Will you try to get into the Magic Knights?”

Asta hesitated. “Well, actually–”

“There you are, Stupidsta!”

Noelle’s voice interrupted him, her footsteps speeding up as she came hurrying along, a wobbly-legged but sober Vanessa in tow. “Idiot!” she shouted. “Don’t go running off like this! What were you thinking, leaving me all alone with this drunkard in the middle of the street?”

Asta opened his mouth to reply, but the old lady beat him to the punch. “Oh, girls!” she exclaimed. “Are you friends with this boy? You have to forgive him. He very bravely defended my purse from the robber, you see?”

Noelle and Vanessa skidded to a halt, looking at each other and then at the old lady before finally staring at Asta in disbelief. “Eh… he did?”

“Indeed he did! He and this sword are truly something else.” The old woman turned fully towards the girls. “And you two are Magic Knights, I see? I would have loved to see your magic!” Her eyes started sparkling again. “But alas, that has to wait for another time. Goodbye, children! I must hurry home!”

Asta smiled and waved at her. “Watch out for your purse this time!”

“I will, young man!” the old woman shouted back. “Goodbye!”

Then she was gone, and Asta was left alone with Noelle and Vanessa.

“So,” he said, “how’d you guys get Vanessa sober again?”

“We found a sobering potion,” Noelle said with a pointed glare. “No thanks to you, Stupidsta.”

“Hey, should I have let that guy escape with the granny’s money?”

“There, there, not so loud…” Vanessa whimpered and rubbed her forehead. “Don’t fight, okay? Let’s just fly back… Asta, do you mind staying at our headquarters for tonight? I’m so sleepy.” She yawned. “I’ll fly you back tomorrow morning, okay?”

“Oh…” Asta’s heart skipped a beat at the mere thought of staying at the headquarters of a Magic Knight squad. “Uh… Sure!”

\---

Yuno fell on his knees, gasping and panting and catching his breath.

He wasn’t sure what had happened, except that he didn’t need to fight anymore. The last of the kidnappers had been defeated. Sister Lily was free.

And no thanks to him.

“Yuno!” Klaus shouted, running over to him. “Are you unharmed?”

Glancing down at himself, then at Sister Lily, Yuno gave a nod. “Y-Yeah,” he said. “What…”

Klaus simply pointed at the tied-up figure standing behind him in the distance. “Him,” he said. “He was the one who sent the attackers in an attempt to take his revenge on you for besting him in the exams. Is that right, Salim de Hapshass?”

Salim’s mouth was covered, but he nodded and tried to mutter something unintelligible, struggling against his ties.

“But he underestimated the strength of the Golden Dawn,” Klaus muttered as he extended a hand to help Sister Lily to her feet. “No longer will you lead anyone into traps, traitor!”

“We aren’t taking him to the border anymore,” Mimosa answered to Yuno’s questioning glance. “We are taking him to court, aren’t we, sir?”

Klaus gave a nod. “Precisely! A criminal like you does not deserve to be escorted, except to prison!”

Yuno looked from one to the other. Then at his family. Then at Salim, who returned his gaze with a spiteful glare.

Little by little the whole situation began to make sense. And then it dawned on him. The whole meaning of everyone’s words dawned on him completely.

“So…” he ventured, barely daring to hope. “We’re going back to the capital… right?”

Mimosa nodded. “That’s right.”

\---

“A boy who operates without magic,” Julius Novachrono said half to himself, replaying the scene from the black market in his head for the third time. “Only with a sword that seems to cut through magic and unbelievable strength. I’ve seen many oddities in my life, but never anything like that.”

“Are you still going on about that?” The voice next to him almost startled him, but by now the Wizard King was too used to Marx popping up out of nowhere to mind. “Sire, with all due respect–”

“I can’t spend all my time incognito scouting out new magic. I know, I know,” Julius cut off the all-too-familiar scolding. “But think about this, Marx! I tried to lift that sword! It’s impossible to lift! I wonder if that boy is using some kind of strength-enhancing magic… is there such a thing, I wonder?” He gazed off into the distance, lost in thought. “Unless… wait.” He stopped short. “It can’t be _that_ sword, can it?”

His right-hand man blinked in surprise. “You don’t mean–? That blade was destroyed long ago!”

“Who knows.” Julius shrugged and dismissed the thought. “In any case we need to keep an eye on this kid, he’s got potential.” The image of the two girls in the Black Bulls robes flashed through his mind, and he raised an eyebrow. He wondered if the boy was a Magic Knight too. With that strength of his and the odd weapon, he wouldn’t be out of place among them, but he hadn’t had a robe.

Or a Grimoire, for that matter.

So how was he connected to those Knights? Coincidence?

He wondered.

“I should talk to Yami again,” he muttered, picking up a quill from his desk. “Looks like his squad has come into contact with someone very interesting.”


	20. Chasing a Shadow

Yuno flew faster than he had ever flown before. The wind tugged at his hair, his clothes, rushing in his ears and making his eyes water as the city passed underneath him in a blur of colors and lights. They had taken much too long already. Traveling back with Salim had been slow, too slow despite the rush, Klaus’ carriage struggling to keep up with the speed of Yuno and Mimosa’s brooms. Then they had to turn him in and answer a dozen questions, and by the time they had returned to the headquarters it had been close to dawn. Mimosa had been sleepy, slowing down her search of her cousin’s letter, and when Yuno had found out where Asta lived the sun had already begun to appear on the horizon. An entire night lost. An entire night spent awake after a long day, but never in his life had he felt any less tired.

Thank goodness Mimosa’s cousin had been clever enough to drop the name of the inn where Asta worked. Thank goodness it had been easy to figure out the address. And now he was heading closer and closer to him, so close, so infinitely close. He would probably wake him, but Yuno didn’t care. If he had to shake him out of his sleep in the middle of the night, he would. He just needed to talk to Asta as fast as he could.

A building caught his eye, far below, and with a daring swerve he turned off his course and swooped down into the street. His eyes scanned over the sign over the door of the inn, mentally comparing it to the name he had found in Mimosa’s letter. No doubt, this was the place. The spot that, after seemingly disappearing off the face of the earth, Asta had found himself at.

Skidding and stumbling, Yuno landed on the ground, barely taking time for a breather before sprinting up to the door. It was locked at this time of the night, but he couldn’t wait until they opened. If he woke anyone up, he’d apologize for it later. And Asta, he thought, might easily be up already, ready to go outside for his usual morning training.

Pushing aside the last of his hesitation, his manners, he knocked.

There was a very long silence. No voices, no footsteps. Only the sound of his own heartbeat, thudding too loudly against his ears.

He waited and waited, then he knocked again. Louder this time. Waited.

_ Are you sleeping, Asta? _

_ You can hear me, can’t you? Your instincts always tell you when something’s up. _

Another silence. Then at last there was a shuffle of footsteps, and Yuno’s heart sank. These footsteps didn’t belong to Asta. They were softer, quieter and distinctly more feminine.

Next to the door a window opened, and the messy red-haired head of a girl, not much older than Yuno himself, popped out to peek at him with sleepy eyes. “Good morning,” she said, visibly forcing herself to speak clearly and look friendly. “We’re not open yet, what’s the–” She caught side of Yuno’s robe, and her eyes went wide. “A Magic Knight?” she asked. “At this time? What brings you here?”

“Good morning,” Yuno said, reminding himself of the bare minimum of manners. “I’m looking for my friend.”

The girl’s eyes went even rounder. “Your friend?” she repeated. “Here?”

“I heard he’s staying here.” Yuno’s heartbeat felt like the booming of distant drums, pounding through his body, his bones, his veins, a feeling more than a sound. “His name is Asta.”

“Oh, Asta!”

Recognition dawned on her face, and Yuno’s insides almost collapsed with relief. Asta really was here. He had found him. After all the worries and uncertainty, he finally had the chance to see Asta again.

“Hold on,” said the girl, disappearing from the window only to reappear again through the crack in the door that she had hastily unlocked. “Come in, please,” she said as she beckoned him inside and locked the door again behind him. “Asta sure has a lot of friends in the Magic Knights– oh!” She glanced at his robe again. “The Golden Dawn… You’re Yuno, aren’t you?”

Yuno blinked, less surprised than excited and a little happy. “He mentioned me?”

“Yeah! A lot. He keeps going on and on about needing to catch up to you and defeat you.” The girl laughed. “You must be pretty important to him.”

_ And he is to me. _

Yuno didn’t say that out loud, but he did crack a slight smile. Frustrating as it was that Asta still hadn’t given up on his Wizard King dream even though it had almost ripped him to pieces, he was happy that, even after all this time of being apart, Asta still thought of him and talked about him so often. At least, he thought, he wasn’t the only one who seemed to have missed his best friend.

“Where is he?” he asked, the frantic eagerness from before fading out of his body already. Now that he was here, there was no reason to panic. He was under the same roof as Asta. Neither of the would be able to miss the other as long as there was only one door, unless Asta somehow tried to slip out through the window. “Can I see him?”

A slight shadow fell over the girl’s face. “Well…”

All at once the tension from earlier came back. Yuno balled up his fists, willing himself not to grab her and shake her or bolt out through the door to wherever Asta had gone. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “He’s here, right?”

“I’m… not sure. He should be.” The girl looked worried now. “You see… he’s been befriending a lot of Magic Knights from the Black Bulls lately, and yesterday evening two of them took him to the black market to look for an item that draws out his magic.” She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “I stayed up half the night waiting for him, but he didn’t come back last night. And I don’t know if he came back while I was sleeping, so…”

Yuno gritted his teeth. His insides felt cold, cold with anxiousness and dread and a sense of urgency and danger that seemed much too acute for the situation. “He might have,” he said, more to convince himself than the girl. “Where is his room?”

“Hold on,” she replied, leading the way through the house. “I’ll show you.”

Holding his breath, Yuno followed her up a flight of stairs and through a narrow corridor, coming to stand in front of a closed door at the end of it. “It’s here,” she whispered. “Do you…?”

Yuno didn’t bother to knock. He simply opened the door and peered inside.

Complete silence met him. No snoring. No mumbling. Not even breathing. His eyes squinted to focus in the darkness, but the only bed in the room was untouched and deserted. The only sign that Asta had ever stayed here was the familiar bag of belongings resting in the corner.

“Not here,” the girl muttered, peering into the room over his shoulder. “I should’ve known.”

Yuno simply stared into the room. Countless thoughts were swirling around in his head, chasing one another like a dog chasing its own tail. Asta wasn’t here. Asta had left yesterday evening with a bunch of Magic Knights, a bunch of Black Bulls. He had gone to the black market. And then? Had he stayed there the whole night? Was he already on the way back? If not, where was he? Still asleep somewhere? Was he safe? Had something happened?

“The people who left with him,” he said at last, “who were they?”

“They were trustworthy.” The girl cracked a slight smile, as if reading his thoughts. “They came here before yesterday… a young woman and a girl around our age, a royal I think. They even brought the squad captain here once, so they’re the real deal.”

Yuno closed his eyes, trying to remember. The captain of the Black Bulls… oh right, he had seen that guy before. That tall, muscular, angry-faced guy… it was the one Asta had had a run-in with, wasn’t it? The one who had lifted him up by the head and almost cracked his skull.

Well, he could imagine that one getting along with Asta. They both seemed like pretty stupid meatheads. And if he had been here, then the two girls who had taken Asta with them couldn’t have been fakes either. Whether they were trustworthy was another question entirely. Well, this girl had mentioned a young Knight around their age, a royal… Wouldn’t that fit the description of Mimosa’s cousin? If it had been her, the two were probably trustworthy enough.

But what about the black market? Could something have happened there?

Yuno shook off the thought. What should happen? Asta was tough. He might not have magic, but he had guts and a strong body, and he had been accompanied by two Magic Knights. It wasn’t his safety that he needed to worry about.

But he did worry about something else.

Asta had gone out to look for a magic-enhancing item. He had been looking for something to draw out the powers he had never managed to draw out himself, hoping against hope that an item like that existed. But that was too unlikely, wasn’t it? He must have spent hours searching. Maybe the entire night. Maybe he was still there, looking, searching, trying item after item after item in the feeble hope that eventually one of them would work.

Asta had a strong will. But even he had to waver sometimes, didn’t he? Even he couldn’t do this much without doubting… right?

Damn it, he didn't want to stand around here waiting. He wanted to see him. He wanted to talk to him. Wanted to tell him that it was okay, he shouldn’t try to pursue this impossible dream at all costs, that Yuno would pursue it for both of them. That he could stop taking risks and making everyone around him worry.

“This black market…” he asked, turning to the girl again. “Is it far from here?”

She gave him an apologetic look. “I don’t know where it is,” she said, and Yuno’s heart sank. “But don’t worry, I’m sure he should be back soon! You can wait here if you want.”

He didn’t want to. He really, truly didn’t.

But what other choice did he have?

“Okay,” he said, feeling anything but. “Thanks, I guess.”

_ Asta, where on earth are you? Hurry up and come back already. _

\---

Asta opened his eyes to find the sun on his face.

For a second he didn’t know where he was. The dirty window in front of him looked unfamiliar, the pillow rough under his cheek and smelling faintly of smoke. Where was this place? Was he dreaming?

He looked around, and little by little it all came back to him.

He wasn’t at home, and he wasn’t at Rebecca’s either. The pillow underneath him was lying on a couch, and the the couch was standing right in the middle of the headquarters of the Black Bulls.

Asta shot up straight. The Black Bulls headquarters! He had been so eager to explore this place, but last night he had been so exhausted that he had simply flopped down on the couch and fallen asleep in a heartbeat. And now the sun was already high above the horizon; going by its position and the brightness of its light it had to be around noon.

“Crap!” he burst out, jumping to his feet and nearly tripping over an open box that inexplicably stood in his way. “I totally overslept!”

“Shut up, Stupidsta!” Noelle’s voice shouted from the next room over. “Don’t be so loud immediately after waking!”

“Ah,” said a voice from the other direction, “he’s awake!”

Asta turned. Standing at the door, watching him with eager eyes, was the blond smiling lightning boy – Luck, if he remembered correctly – looking like he had only been waiting to challenge Asta to a competition. “Good morning!” he chimed, waving. “Hey, hey, I heard you got a sword! Can you fight me with it? Please?”

Before Asta got a chance to reply, a third voice chimed in. “Absolutely not!” Finral shouted at Luck as he dragged him away, unceremoniously ushering him out through the door. “Good morning,” he said to Asta. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah,” Asta said with a nod, already looking around already. The room he was in looked like some kind of common room, a very messy common room crowded with mismatched chairs and couches; there were things strewn all over the furniture and the floor, jackets, shirts, shoes, boxes, empty cups and plates, a magic wand, and even an eldritch abomination that bore faint resemblance to a very burned cake. His sword was resting against the wall in a corner. It was completely different from the way he had imagined Magic Knights to live, but he didn’t dislike it. Not in the slightest.

“Cool, huh?”

Asta almost jumped out of his skin. He had been so entranced by the look of the room that he hadn’t heard Magna approaching at all.

“This is our hideout! Isn’t it the greatest?” Magna said, grinning at Asta over the rim of his sunglasses. “And it’s all thanks to Mr. Yami! He got us the greatest hideout ever!”

“Uh… yeah!” Asta quickly found his voice again. “It’s awesome! So big! And I’ve never seen so much stuff in my life!”

Magna gave him a hearty clap on the shoulder. “You ain’t bad, kiddo! Sure know how to recognize the good shit if you see it!”

“That is all fine,” said Noelle’s voice from the door, “but why are you chattering on and on to this commoner insect? He should be on his way home already!”

“Vanessa wanted to do it,” Finral replied. “Has anybody seen her?”

“She’s still in bed!” Luck chimed in. “She’s hungover and can’t fly, she said.”

“Well, then someone else fly him!”

Finral shrugged. “Why? There’s no harm in waiting.”

“Yes, there is! He is loud and annoying and does not belong here!”

Luck made a face at her. “But he’s interesting! At least let me fight him first!”

“Lightning creep’s right for once, he’s fun!” Magna said, looping an arm around Asta’s shoulders in a gesture that looked more threatening than affectionate. “Let ‘im stay a bit! Don’t be a killjoy, Lady Noe!”

Noelle tried to protest, but her words were drowned out as Asta found himself swept out of the common room and into the depths of the headquarters.

\---

Yami scratched his head, squinting at the note sent to his desk from the Wizard King.

This had got to be a joke. Or a very good prank. Whichever it was, he wouldn’t put up with this nonsense. He might be up for a lot, but this was beyond irresponsible.

Was this even from Julius? Yami knew his handwriting, and he knew his style. Both of them were unmistakably his in this letter, and the majority of the note was fairly normal. Yet another mission to send a few of his guys on. Important and dangerous, just how they all liked it best.

What was truly concerning, however, was the postscript.

That guy didn’t actually expect him to go along with this, did he? And even so… how did he know of that shrimp’s existence in the first place?

_ P.S. If you can still get ahold of the magic-less boy named Asta, please send him along. _


	21. The Dungeon's Door

The morning went on. Little by little the sun rose over the horizon, and the sky above their heads turned from black to pink to blue. The city awoke and began to go about its business, and still there was no sign of Asta.

Rebecca had sat with Yuno for as long as she could, sometimes in conversation, sometimes in silence. She had told him everything that had happened since she had run into him in the streets, and Yuno had listened intently, sometimes smiling fondly, sometimes sighing in exasperation. But soon after sunrise she had needed to rouse her younger siblings and take care of them all, and Yuno was left alone again, staring out through the window and feebly searching for a group of Black Bulls and a familiar mess of spiky hair.

His thoughts had been swirling earlier, but now he was oddly calm. Maybe it was the exhaustion finally catching up to him, or maybe it was the knowledge that, unless something had happened to Asta, sooner or later they would meet again here. He only needed to wait now, either for news or for his best friend himself, and that knowledge had left his formerly restless mind completely blank.

His eyes fluttered shut. The image of Asta sliding onto the windowsill with him crossed his vision, smiling at him, not saying a word but simply leaning onto him, warm and comfortable. Yuno cracked a smile and pulled him closer. The spikes of his hair were just at the right height to bury his nose in, the familiar scent flooding him and filling him with memories. It was almost like they were children again, snuggled up under the covers together in the middle of the night, using their closeness to keep each other warm after the fire had gone out. He had missed this feeling. He had missed all of this, just having Asta close, wrapping his arms around him for no reason other than that he was cold and he could.

“Asta?” he heard himself mumbling without any memory of opening his mouth.

“Hmm?”

“Why are you here?”

“‘Cause you wanted me here.” Green eyes glanced up to meet his own, but somehow they didn’t look the same as usual. “Why else?”

Yuno was quiet for a moment. Asta’s eyes seemed to be getting greener and greener, almost unnaturally so. He was strangely reminded of the stone they had seen on their first day in this city.

“Are you staying?”

“Sure,” Asta said with a smile. “As long as you want me to.”

Yuno blinked, gazing down at his face, the features he knew so well. Then he nuzzled his shoulder, hugging him tightly against his chest.

“Then stay forever,” he mumbled. “Sit here and don’t move.”

“–no?  _ Yuno! _ ”

He opened his eyes. The image of Asta evaporated in front of his mind.

“Yuno,” Mimosa called again, and for a moment he wondered where he was and when he had fallen asleep and how much of everything had been a dream. “Wake up!”

Blinking, Yuno looked around, taking in his surroundings with unwilling eyes. He was not in his room, this much was clear. He wasn’t anywhere inside the headquarters, for that matter. Instead he sat perched on the windowsill of a small inn, leaning against the glass on one side while the other had been opened to reveal the faces of Mimosa and Klaus behind her.

So coming here, he thought, hadn’t been a dream. Neither had been the wait. After that, however, he must have drifted off. Asta wasn’t here. Of course he wasn’t. Someone would have woken him up otherwise, right?

And now these two were here. For whatever reason.

“I’m awake,” he said, unwillingly, hoping his tone and glare would be enough to scare them out of dragging him into whatever they had come here looking for him for. “What’s up?”

“Yuno, mind your phrasing!” Jumping up in his flying carriage, Klaus adjusted his glasses, visibly offended. “You may be a peasant, but you are one of the Golden Dawn now! And what are you doing here in this shabby house? That is no place for a Magic Knight to sit around in! Think of our image!”

Yuno gave him a scathing look. “I came here to meet someone.”

“Well,” Mimosa replied, “I hope that can wait, because we just got a job!”

Yuno tensed up. “Now?”

“Indeed we did, and the captain personally requested you to join us, so stop dabbling around!” Klaus shouted from behind her. “A very important job, too. We will explain everything to you on the way.”

An important job. The captain had personally requested him. It was a chance. An opportunity to take the next step to acknowledgement and renown and the distant position of Wizard King.

He wanted to go, there was no doubt about it. But Asta…

Damn it. He had been so close. So infinitely close. He could return at any moment. And now Yuno suddenly had to leave again, not knowing when he would get the chance to return.

Well, it was fine. Asta would want him to go too, he thought. Get out there, do everything in his power to make this a success, come back in glory and then return to this place. Hoping that this time, at last, Asta would be home.

Snatching his broom, he fully opened the window and climbed outside. “Let’s go,” he said. “What’s the job about?”

\---

“This is utterly absurd,” Noelle said as she strode down the hill, “and I will have you know that no matter what the Wizard King says, I will never approve of this madness.”

Asta groaned. They had had this very same discussion about five times since this morning, and here they went again. “C’mon!” he shouted back. “If I gotta go, I gotta go! Or are you gonna talk this out with the Wizard King or something?”

“I will not! But it is irresponsible!” Noelle’s cheeks flushed with anger. “This mission is dangerous, not some child’s play. Magic Knights are the only ones qualified to–”

“Well, the Wizard King doesn’t think so!”

“The Wizard King is  _ wrong _ , then!”

“How do  _ you _ know that?”

“I have common sense!” Noelle said with a huff. “No one with so-called nonexistent magic powers, no matter how ridiculous their weapon, can possibly be qualified to raid a magical dungeon! You’ll only hold us back, Stupidsta.” She crossed her arms. “It’s best if you stay outside and wait for us while we do the work.”

Asta bristled; the very suggestion felt like an insult. “That’s not what the Wizard King sent me for!” he shot back. “At least let me try!”

“I told you, that would be foolish and–”

“I think it’s fine,” Luck piped in from the side. “He’s got a sword like this, so he’s strong, right?”

Noelle looked like she was about to explode. With a deep breath she composed herself, but her face was still suspiciously red when she spoke. “A sword alone may help against the kind of thief he defeated,” she said, “but this is no street thug. This is a dungeon. The ancient spells hidden inside these walls present a challenge even for powerful Magic Knights. They are no place for insects like him to play around in!”

Luck shrugged. “He can try.”

“Did you listen to what I just–”

“If something goes wrong, he’s got us with him,” Luck said nonchalantly. “It’s gonna be fine. Right, Asta?”

Asta nodded and glared over his shoulder at Noelle.

“Absurd,” Noelle muttered under her breath, even though she complied. “To think that such important public figures and role models would be so irresponsible.”

Truth be told, Asta wasn’t entirely sure if she might not, after all, have a point. He only had a vague idea of what a dungeon was, let alone how dangerous; and confident as he was in his newfound sword and the strange power that seemed to inhibit, or rather  _ not _ inhibit, the weapon, he was still fully aware that compared to his magically powered companions he was still at a massive disadvantage. He just trusted that the Wizard King and Captain Yami were smart and experienced enough to know what they were doing.

For now, of course, he had no time to think about it in detail. The dungeon was already opening in front of their eyes. It was a humongous building of stone, ancient, its massive walls engraved with symbols and formulas he couldn’t understand. In many parts nature had reclaimed it; plants with odd-shaped dark leaves climbed and coiled their winding way up the pale stone, and here and there the gnarled roots of trees had cracked it, strangling it between them in search of the ground. And yet the dungeon was perfectly stable. No cracks, no roots and climbing plants could do any real damage to it; everything held firmly together, as if kept up by a magic as old as the roots of the world.

The path they were making through the tangled undergrowth led up to a gate. It was closed, but no lock was on it, nothing to indicate if they could open it or not. If Asta didn’t know better, he would have suspected that all it needed to open was a little push.

Luck and Noelle, however, paused at a few steps’ distance from the gate, watching it carefully like a poisonous snake. “There’s a strong magic here,” Noelle muttered. “The door is closed by a spell. We need to be careful, or else–”

Luck didn’t wait for her to finish. Without warning he gathered a crackling aura of lightning around his hands, sending them towards the door in a flash.

The plants around the gate came to life. Tearing themselves from the ancient walls, they lashed out, extending and threatening to tangle around the companions at lightning speed. Luck leaped out of the way just in time. Noelle ducked to the ground. Asta, without thinking, grabbed his sword and slashed at the tendrils.

The coils shot back to the wall as if frightened. A few leaves fell dead, wilting and turning brown even as they sank to the ground. The door still stood peaceful, unstirring, as if nothing had happened at all.

“Crap!” Asta burst out, only now fully registering the situation. “What the hell was that?”

“The curse of the door! It’s defending itself from intruders,” Luck replied. His eyes were shining with a perfectly inappropriate excitement. “Isn’t this fun?”

“It’s dreadful!” Noelle shot back. “How on earth are we supposed to get in?”

There was a moment’s silence. Then all their gazes simultaneously rested on Asta’s sword.

If that thing was truly immune to magic, they thought, then maybe it could cut through the closing spell as if it wasn’t there and open the door by brute force?

Before any of them could say anything, Asta lifted the blade, stepping towards the door. “I’m gonna try it!”

Noelle lifted a hand to stop him, but her shout of intervention never left her throat. Asta had already leaped at the door, brandishing his sword and slashing at it with every ounce of strength he had.

Metal collided with wood. There was a cracking noise, then the door broke to pieces and swung open with a crash and a bang.

Asta stumbled forward, almost not registering that he was already inside. “Okay,” he said. “It’s open!”

Noelle and Luck sprinted in, not a second too early. They had barely made it inside when the shattered door slammed back shut, still and unmoving in its old position despite the crack in the middle.

Pitch-blackness greeted them. None of them could see so much as their hands before their eyes. Blinking, they groped around, trying and failing to determine which way to go. At last their eyes adjusted enough to the darkness to make out shapes, rocks that had tumbled into the path, strange plants that crawled over the walls without any need for light. The path opened out ahead of them, leading in a straight line deeper and deeper into the blackness.

“Can’t we make some light?” Asta said, squinting ahead, wondering if it was truly darker ahead or if his eyes were playing a trick on him. “We’re not gonna see anything till we bump into it like this!”

There was a crackle and a flash, and when their eyes had adjusted to the brightness they found that Luck had used his magic again, crackling blue electricity forming a shining glove around his right hand, illuminating the tunnel. “Better?”

“Better indeed! You could have done this from the very beginning, and saved all of us this useless blundering in the darkness.” Noelle gave a huff. “Let’s go inside!”

The tunnel had no end. For ages and ages they followed it down its straight line, blocked by no plants or rocks or other obstacles no matter how many lay on the sides of the path, as if some magic had kept it free. There were no traps, no spells, no objects. Only the endlessness of the tunnel and the echoing sound of their footsteps as they followed it deeper and deeper into the heart of the dungeon.

At last, when it felt like they had been walking for hours and yet only a handful of minutes, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. They picked up their steps, hurrying towards it. The light grew bigger and bigger, taking the shape of a door. They began to run.

Then suddenly they were through the door, coming to stand inside a gigantic hall.

It was as high as a mountain. All over the place small streams ran along the wall and floor and ceiling, seemingly appearing and disappearing at will, some flowing down, some defying gravity to run upwards or sideways. On every side, at every height, dozens of small doors led into the hall, all of them dark, untouched. Palm trees grew here, and more of the coiling plants, and other growths that Asta had never seen in his life except in pictures of forgotten days, species long extinct in the outside world. The entire place was filled with a bright light that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. No lamps were anywhere to be seen.

“Wow,” Asta burst out, trying to look at everything at once, failing to decide where to turn first. “This is so cool! And weird! What’s up with this place?”

Luck smiled, visibly excited by the strange hall. “Looks like the magic messed with gravity in here,” he said. “The mana in here is way stronger than outside too!”

Noelle gave a nod. “I’ve never seen so much mana gathered in one place before!”

Asta looked from one to the other, trying to feel anything. Nothing. He could only trust the others that it was there; his own senses picked up nothing.

“I can’t feel a thing,” he said. “Dammit! It’s all ‘cause you guys can use magic and I–”

He never got to finish the sentence. His foot stepped down on a floor tile, and the next moment an explosion shook the hall. Just in time did he leap out of reach to avoid losing his leg.

“Whoa,” he gasped out, staring at the treacherous tile in horror. “What the hell was that?”

“A trap!” Luck chimed like it was the most normal thing in the world. He looked around, the pointed to another tile. “Hey, hey, hit that one with your sword! But don’t touch it!”

Asta obliged, and the tile shattered in half. Nothing else seemed to happen. “What was that about?”

Luck, however, ignored his question. “Hit that one next!” he said, pointing at another tile. Asta did as he was told. “And then that one over here!”

Asta did again, staring at luck in confusion. “What’s up with them?”

“They’re traps,” Luck replied cheerily. “But that’s okay! Just destroy them with your sword before anything happens and this’ll be a piece of cake!”

Asta wasn’t sure what to make of that remark, but he chose to be optimistic about it. “Uh… sure!”

He was just waiting for further instructions when Luck suddenly paused, listening intently in one direction, then sniffing the air. Suddenly his eyes flashed, and his magic crackled as it formed a pair of boots, catapulting him into the air. “You guys keep exploring this place,” he chimed, taking off to leave them behind. “Something important came up! I’ll be back soon!”

Asta and Noelle shouted at him to wait, but it was too late. Already he was gone, disappearing into one of the countless doors, and they were left alone.

“Just great,” Asta said, staring after him. “So who’s gonna find the traps for us now?”

Noelle looked similarly distressed, but she gave herself a shake. “You’re forgetting I’m a noble,” she said. “I can sense mana too. All you need to do is rely on my skill and generosity and–”

Before she could finish, the coils of a plant shot out of nowhere to tangle around her limbs.

Noelle shrieked and cursed. Struggling against the plant, she was lifted higher and higher into the air, closer and closer to the mouth of a huge flower that looked like it ate human flesh. Asta slashed at the coils, but no use. Noelle was too high up, and for every coil he hit a new one lashed out to tangle itself around her.

If only he could get to the core… the flower… if he got that, then maybe–

He slashed again and lost balance. Noelle fell from the plant’s grasp and scrambled out of reach. The sword fell from Asta’s hands and clattered to the ground. He reached to pick it up. But his hand was only inches away from the hilt when the coils struck again, snatching him by the limbs and launching him towards the flower’s hungry mouth.

A gust of wind brushed by him. The air above formed blades, raining down on the plant and slashing it to pieces. The coils around him loosened and disappeared. The plant struggled, but against this new attacker it stood no chance.

A cushion of air slowed Asta as he fell, catching him and gently lowering him to the ground. His hand rapidly closed around the hilt of his sword, picking it up as he stood and turned around to face his rescuer.

In a doorway not far above his head stood three figures, all of them dressed in the uniforms of the Golden Dawn. But the one in the middle was one that Asta knew better than he knew his own face, no matter if he had never seen him in these clothes before.

Floating himself down to the ground, Yuno stumbled towards him, his eyes wide with stunned disbelief and another emotion Asta didn’t understand. For a moment he looked almost as if he had seen a ghost.

“Asta?” he asked quietly. “What are you doing here?”


	22. Reunion

_Asta._

How? Why?

Yuno floated down to the floor of the hall, but still he couldn’t believe his eyes. Too miraculous it was, too impossible. What was someone like Asta doing in a dungeon of all places? Why with a Magic Knight? He should never have come here in the first place. Strong as he was, nothing could protect him from the dangers of this place except a strong magic power.

Maybe he was still dreaming, he thought. Maybe in reality he was still asleep on the windowsill of Rebecca’s house, waiting for Asta, and soon enough his voice would wake him up. It would explain everything, he knew. And yet he had a feeling that this time around he was truly awake.

Too much spoke against a dream. The dungeon felt real. The spell he had used, instinctively hurrying towards Asta’s voice and rescuing him from his attacker, felt real. He could feel the loss of mana inside his body. And Asta himself, too, felt real, not hazy and overly intense like in his dream but very much alive.

He looked different too, he thought. His clothes were much the same, but they appeared to have been mended recently. His hair had grown longer. And then there was that sword, the one he was now holding firmly in his hand. A strange object. Different from everything he had ever seen or imagined in a way he could neither grasp nor explain.

Asta cocked his head, looking him up and down with the same eyes as always, his gaze lingering on the Golden Dawn robe. “Yuno!” he said. “What’s up?”

Yuno stared at him for a long, silent moment, unsure what to say. “I’m exploring the dungeon,” he said at last. “Together with everyone. You know, like a Magic Knight.” Asta grimaced at that, and Yuno resisted the urge to smile; too familiar was that expression, too welcome in this strange place, despite everything. “So why are _you_ in here? Did you find a way to use your magic at last?”

“Nope!” Asta declared, and for whatever inconceivable reason he didn’t sound frustrated in the slightest. Yuno could never understand his spirit. “But I got this.” He lifted up his sword. “And it’s almost as good as magic!”

Yuno reached out to touch the hilt, only to flinch back. Something was up with that thing. He couldn’t tell what it was, but his instincts were clearly warning him of _something_.

“Hm?” said a voice from behind him, quickly followed by scrambling footsteps. From the corner of his eye Yuno saw a ladder-like plant disappear. “Do you know each other?”

More steps followed, and Klaus appeared on his other side. “Yuno!” he said, adjusting his glasses. “Why did you save them? We have no time to waste. We need to reach the treasure hall at the center as fast as possible, we cannot linger here to waste our resources on the likes of them!”

Yuno gave him a glance. Part of him faintly considered an explanation; the other part preferred to silently judge him. Before he could come to a decision, however, Asta spoke up.

“Hey, Yuno!” he burst out, unsubtly gesturing at Klaus. “What’s with this rude four-eyes?”

“Senior member,” Yuno deadpanned.

“Four-eyes– I beg your pardon!” Klaus shouted, completely ignoring Yuno for the moment. “You’re the rude one! How dare you talk to a noble as if we are equals!”

Asta opened his mouth to yell a reply, but thankfully at that moment Mimosa spoke up. “Why, if it isn’t Noelle!” she exclaimed, her eyes round as saucers. “It’s been awhile, hasn’t it, dear cousin? We haven’t seen each other since last year’s dinner party!”

Yuno followed her gaze, and now for the first time he took notice of the girl in Asta’s company. She had to be around their age, twin-tailed and silver-haired, wearing the signature robe of the Black Bulls. So that girl—Noelle?—was Mimosa’s infamous Black Bulls cousin who had stumbled across Asta in that inn. That explained a small part of the story. The rest, however, was still as confusing as ever.

For now Noelle seemed anything but pleased at the sudden sight of her cousin. The smile on her face was so forced even Yuno could tell; and the way she jolted when Asta spoke to her said more than a thousand words. “You know her?”

“Well,” she said, “sort of.”

“You poor thing, stuck with the barbaric Black Bulls! They aren’t treating you badly, are you?” Mimosa leaned close, intensely staring her up and down. “Well, in your letters they seemed quite decent… You haven’t been lying to me, have you?”

“No… No, of course not!” Noelle flipped her hair. “So how do you manage among the hyper-competent Golden Dawn, Mimosa?”

“Oh, quite well,” Mimosa replied, evidently oblivious to the thinly-veiled insult. “Everyone is very kind, even Yuno here, although I was quite scared of him the first time we met, you know!” Yuno blinked; that part had been news to him. “But thanks to them I can use my magic without worry! Oh, but speaking of magic…” She tilted her head in concern. “Can you use yours without problems now?”

Noelle gave a start, visibly paling. “I– I– I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, but please! You used to have so much trouble controlling your magi–”

With a wail and a shriek Noelle covered her mouth. “Nonsense!” she blurted out. “All of it, nonsense! Let us speak no more of it!” She abruptly let go of Mimosa. “More importantly, what are you three doing here?”

“We were sent on this mission.” Klaus adjusted his glasses _again_ , as if they had ever had the chance to slip on his nose since the last time he had. “A dangerous mission requires only the most qualified of Magic Knights. So–” he glared at Asta and Noelle– “what brings _you_ here? A child barely old enough to be a Magic Knight, of the incompetent Black Bulls no less. And–” his eyes narrowed on Asta– “a street rat who seems to belong to no Magic Knight squad at all.” He crossed his arms. “Who is this child? Have you picked him up on the street along the way? Who sent you on this mission without adult supervision?”

“We have adult supervision!” Asta burst out. “He just, uh… went off somewhere.”

“That bars the entire concept of adult supervision, you fool!”

“Who’re you calling a fool, you four-eyed jerk!”

“I call those fools who behave like it!” Klaus pushed up his glasses with such a big gesture that it was obvious he only did it for dramatic effect. “And that still leaves my main question unanswered. What are you street rat doing on a dangerous mission for Magic Knights?”

Asta opened his mouth, but Noelle was faster. “The Wizard King himself requested him,” she declared, standing in front of him. “Do you claim to know better than him, man of the Golden Dawn?”

“Noelle…” Asta said quietly, his eyes visibly wide with wonder. Yuno only stared at him in silence. The Wizard King? The Wizard King had requested Asta? Even though he wasn’t part of the Magic Knights… even though he could use no magic?

It was one miracle after the next.

“Impossible,” Klaus said next to him, evidently thinking the same thing. “Why should the Wizard King know a nobody like you at all?”

“Look, I dunno either!” Asta shouted back. “I don’t remember meeting him! But if you don’t believe us, go ask Captain Yami!”

“Like I would believe that man either! All of you Black Bulls are an untrustworthy disgrace!”

“Oh yeah?” With a furious swing of his arms Asta pointed at him, glowering. “Then we’re gonna show you! The Black Bulls are gonna reach the treasury first, and I with them!”

Klaus gave a start. Yuno, however, almost had to hide a smile. Typical Asta, he thought. No one else would have thought of uttering such an impossible challenge. And for no one it was more impossible than for Asta. Anyone else in his situation would never have had the idea.

And yet Asta was here. Armed with a mysterious sword that radiated a strange aura. Requested by the Wizard King without knowing how or why. Despite all odds and impossibilities.

Truly an inspiration. Or a miracle. A little bit of both, just like he had always been.

Yuno, for one, was in for the challenge.

“Fine, you fools!” Klaus shouted out at the same moment. “If that is what you wish, we will teach you the difference!” He turned around. “Mimosa!”

“I’m onto it!” she replied, opening her Grimoire and making a winding plant sprout out from the stone, climbing its way up into the air and forming a living, blossoming model of the dungeon. Staring at the details of the flower, she mumbled to herself, memorizing turns and corners until she finally let the plant disappear. “Alright,” she said. “I memorized the layout of this dungeon.”

Klaus gave a sharp nod. “Yuno!”

Yuno already knew his role. Gathering the air about him, he formed a floating ship, lifting the three of them up in the air, ready to launch them into the direction Mimosa pointed him in. “Now,” Klaus said to Asta and Noelle with a scoff, “try as best as you can!”

And off they were, darting into one of the many tunnels at the speed of wind itself. Yuno couldn’t hide his smile this time. It was almost like old times, he thought. Years ago, before the worry about Asta’s lack of magic had driven them apart. It was like they were children again, stubbornly competing for the same impossible goal.

If only things could stay that way. If only they could keep doing this. Over and over. Including their main rivalry, their competition for the Wizard King role.

_Can’t we have one more miracle?_

Behind him Klaus and Noelle were talking, still discussing the encounter as if it was the strangest thing they had ever seen. “These imbeciles,” he heard Klaus remark. “Do they truly believe they stand a chance against us?”

“I wonder,” Mimosa replied. “My cousin, at least, is strong in her own way. But what about the boy?”

“What was he, anyway? I couldn’t sense an ounce of magic from him.” Klaus shook his head. “What was the Wizard King thinking, sending him here, on the off chance that this outrageous story was true?”

Yuno smiled.

“Klaus,” he said, “if I were you, I wouldn’t underestimate him.”

The look on his senior’s face was one of skepticism at best. Yuno minded little. His thoughts were already with Asta again, filling him with brimming suspense and the excitement to see what he was going to do next.

Ah, damn it. He was falling back into that old hope. He shouldn’t, the more reasonable part of him whispered. He had been disappointed so many times before. He should have stopped Asta while he could. Sword or no sword, he could still use no magic. Sooner or later these competitions would get him badly injured again, or possibly killed.

But he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t help it. He just couldn’t help it.

Asta was his childhood hero. Asta was strong. And every time he thought he had hit a limit, every time he thought they could go no further, Asta went and surprised him anyway.

So he carried on and believed against reason and hope.

\---

“For crying out loud!” Noelle burst out as soon as the Golden Dawn had disappeared out of sight and hearing. “Stupidsta, you insect! What in the world have you done?” She groaned. “We don’t even have a tracking spell!”

Asta had to admit he hadn’t thought that far, but he was positive they could work their way around it. “It’s okay!” he said, confidently propping himself up on his sword. “We just gotta look everywhere real carefully till we find it!”

“You imbecile! That will only get us lost!”

Asta wanted to reply, but at that moment something else caught his attention. Small wings flapping, beady eyes staring. A beak that, without warning, closed around his wrist and pinched.

“Ow!” he burst out, shaking his wrist in a feeble effort to try and get rid of it. “Ow! What the hell? Noelle, there’s a freaking bird here!”

“Now is really not the time for such irrelevant–”

“No, look here! Ow, ow, ow!” Asta shook his arm, but the bird remained where it was. “What the hell, get off me! It’s trying to eat my wrist!”

Noelle leaned closer, her eyes suddenly shining. “That’s an anti-bird!” she exclaimed. “How did it come to this place? Here, birdy, birdy!” She reached out a hand to pet it, only to be rather harshly swatted off with a flapping wing.

“Stop trying to pet it!” Asta groaned. “Help me instead! Ow!”

The bird pulled at his wrist, dragging his arm off in one direction. Asta pulled back. The bird pinched harder.

“What is it?” he asked in exasperation. “What do you want?”

“Asta, wait.”

Stepping close to the bird, Noelle extended her hand again, more carefully this time. “I think it’s trying to show us something,” she said. “Maybe we should follow it.”

“How do we know it’s on our side?” Asta shot back. “Maybe it’s gonna lead us into a trap!”

“But it looks cute– I mean– We do not know!” Noelle crossed her arms. “But what choice do we have as long as it refuses to let go of your wrist?”

Asta couldn’t argue with that, and with a sigh he gave in. “Okay,” he said. “What do you want, bird guy? You wanna show us something?”

He had barely finished his sentence when the bird let go of his wrist, flapping up to a small tunnel entrance and pointing with its wing.

“In there?” Asta asked, and the bird flapped its wings. “You want us to go in there?”

The bird flapped again. Asta exchanged a glance with Noelle. She nodded.

“Okay,” Asta said, adjusting his sword and climbing into the dark unknown. “Lead the way, bird!”

\---

Smoke filled the entire hall, irritating Luck’s eyes, blocking his airways and obscuring his vision. He could barely make out his opponent anymore. Blue-gray was his entire vision, dark and impenetrable.

Good. That was where the fun started.

He could barely breathe anymore. He could barely move. His body almost refused to listen to his commands. He didn’t care. It was no fun if it was easy. If it wasn’t a deadly dangerous battle, it wasn’t a challenge.

And yet, little by little his vision blurred as he sank closer and closer to deadly sleep.

“I am sorry,” said the middle-aged man standing above him, his voice reaching him from a remote distance, as if through a dream. “But you gave me no other choice.”

\---

They were almost there.

The door to the treasury loomed in front of them, huge and impenetrable. All they needed was to open it, and they would be inside. There was no trace of the Black Bulls yet. Of course not. They had won.

The thought had barely crossed their minds when they sensed something else there. A presence. And not of the Black Bulls.

Someone else was here.

The next moment everything around them was shattered by crystals.


	23. A Friend's Influence

A deafening crack shot through the quiet, echoing off the dungeon walls like countless windows and glasses shattering in a row. The shadow of giant crystals fell on their path. Yuno and Klaus spun around, ready for self-defense.

Mimosa had been struck full force by the attack, her clothes and skin torn and broken by the onslaught of crystals. With a gasp and a groan she fell forward to the ground. Blood seeped from her wounds, her chest heaving as she frantically labored and struggled for air.

“Mimosa!” Klaus burst out, running to her side. “Are you alive?”

She whimpered and curled up. “Don’t worry about me,” she mouthed. “But… what was that?”

That was what they all asked themselves. None of them had been able to react in time. Not even Mimosa, whose specialty was the detection of mana.

This hadn’t been a trap spell. This had been an attack.

“You!” Klaus shouted just as footsteps reverberated through the hall, quiet, clear and rhythmic. “Who goes there? Reveal yourself!”

The footsteps came closer. _Tap, tap, tap_ , an echoing sound that seemed larger than life in the sudden silence. A figure moved into view. A young man, tall, muscular, his forehead and clothes adorned with crystals. His face and hair were ghostly pale.

_Tap, tap_. The footsteps came to a stop. The echo died down into silence.

“Who’s there?” asked a deep, calm voice. “Who’s in my way?”

The Magic Knights held their breath. None of them responded.

“Move.”

\---

Gray. Dark gray. Everywhere Luck looked he saw nothing but smoky gray.

He had fallen into a cloud, sinking deeper and deeper as it slowly swallowed him up. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t hear or see. Was he awake? Was he dreaming? Was he still alive at all? He couldn’t tell.

So this was how it would end, huh. Sinking into a cloud of smoke in the middle of a dungeon, defeated by a stranger from the Diamond Kingdom. No audience. No fame. No glory. But a lot of fun.

Gasping out another breath, he let himself fall.

_Win, Luck._

This voice…

_Win and keep winning._

A dream? No…

_That’s my boy. Keep winning. Mom is so proud of you._

A memory. It was a memory, wasn’t it?

_Luck! Win!_

He opened his eyes.

His vision was still hazy. His limbs felt like lead. His lungs couldn’t grasp the air no matter how much they gasped. But he was alive. He could still keep going.

And most importantly, he could still use his magic.

Crackling electricity formed a glove around his hand. Without warning he pushed himself up and leaped after the old man.

His body was on the verge of collapsing. But things hadn’t been this fun in a long, long time.

\---

Mimosa sank into her healing magic, her body and face half disappearing inside the flower cradle. “I’m so sorry,” she managed out. “I’m the healer, and I went down first…”

“Don’t you mind,” Klaus replied, his voice almost gentle for once. “You scoundrel!” he shouted at the stranger. “How dare you attack a lady from behind? Do you have no honor?”

“Honor?” the stranger replied, unmoved, almost eerily monotone. “I don’t know what that means. It doesn’t matter.” Another onslaught of crystals formed in front of him, aiming straight for Mimosa. “You’re all the same pebbles by the wayside.”

This time Klaus reacted in time. A wall of steel towered up in front of them, stopping the crystals and shielding them all. “Yuno!” he shouted, and Yuno already knew what he was going to say. “Back me up!”

Yuno was already gathering wind and mana around him. “Yes, sir.”

This wasn’t part of the competition for the treasury. But it was part of the bigger game. It was an opportunity to prove himself and get one step closer to reaching his dream.

Deep down, he thought, he had always waited for a chance like this.

\---

Asta and Noelle darted down the passage, running and racing to follow the anti-bird. Through the strangest places it had led them and still they had remained safe; but this passage was easy to cross, no skewered gravity or magic traps to slow their race for the treasury. Ahead of them a darkness loomed. And still the bird flapped on, and they behind it.

A thundering boom made them stop in their tracks. The ceiling shook and crumbled above their heads. Even the bird stopped, flapping in place before landing on the ground and blinking up at them with beady eyes.

Asta skidded to a stumbling halt, looking right and left, startled. “What was that?”

“This magic…” Noelle furrowed her brow. “I think it’s Luck! It seems he’s fighting with someone!”

Fighting? No way. Who on earth should he be fighting with? Not Yuno and the others, that was for sure. Was there someone else here? Someone dangerous? But then…

“We should go help!” he shouted on a whim. “Right?”

Noelle hesitated, narrowing her eyes. “Well,” she said, “it’s not like we have to. After all he’s only doing whatever he wants.” Catching the look on Asta’s face, she added, “Besides, we have to get to the treasury first, don’t we?”

Asta paused. She was right, he realized. Luck was strong from all he had seen, and he had run off on his own earlier. If they turned aside now they would probably lose every chance they had at winning the competition.

Normally this would have been a no-brainer. Screw the competition, companions mattered more. But Yuno was his companion too. And this was the first competition they had had in many weeks—no, possibly months.

Besides, he thought, what if Yuno and the others were faced with someone too? Someone just as strong… or even stronger?

Yuno? Luck? Luck? Yuno?

No, he thought. That was stupid. The answer had always been clear. Yuno was strong, and he had companions. Luck was alone. His companions were supposed to be the two of them.

“Screw the treasury,” he said with a twinge of regret. “Let’s go help Luck!”

\---

The stranger was strong. Very strong.

Yuno and Klaus were fighting for their lives. On and on the crystal attacks kept coming, one after the next, rapid, fierce, powerful. All their strength was bent just on blocking the onslaught, and still the stranger showed no signs of exhaustion. And strangest of all, he wasn’t even using a Grimoire.

This couldn’t go on. They had to find a way to stop him soon, or else they would all fall, right in front of the treasury that had been their goal all along. Something needed to be done.

“Yuno,” Klaus whispered the very moment Yuno wanted to say something, “leave this to me! I’ll hold him at bay, so you go enter the treasure hall!”

Yuno hesitated. Klaus was powerful, he knew that, and yet he didn’t like the idea. His gut instincts were telling him it would end in disaster.

“That guy’s too much,” he whispered back between blocking two attacks. “If you try to fight him without backup, even you will–”

“I’m aware of all that! Do you think I would willingly send a peasant like you to finish this honorable task?” Klaus glared at him. “Do this for our homeland! Just go!”

Yuno nodded and darted off. From the corner of his eye he saw Klaus prepare an attack, but the stranger was faster. A small set of crystals erupted around his foot. He couldn’t free his leg.

Klaus was trapped.

\---

Luck was caught inside the solid smoke, breathless, powerless, unable to move. None of his struggles could help him against this trap anymore. None of his remaining strength was enough to break the prison. He was captured. Defeated.

He had lost. As much as he hated the word, he had lost.

The man stood in front of him, gazing up from the floor, smiling. “You know,” he said, “you sure look like you’re carrying something heavy.”

Luck gasped and struggled. Feeble.

“Here,” said the man, extending his hand. “I’ll set you free.”

Luck was dead. He knew he was.

He didn’t want to accept it that easily. He… what did he want again?

But before he could figure out a way to defend himself, the door to the dungeon slammed open with a bang.

\---

“Yuno,” Asta’s voice echoed from the depths of his mind, “we’re like family, right?”

The image of the distant mountain flickered before his eyes, the city atop it, he and Asta standing on a hill and gazing into the distance, the wide world that promised adventure and freedom. They had been younger back then, smaller. How much smaller, he could not recall. Had this still been before their promise? Or shortly after?

“That’s right,” he heard his child voice saying, audibly happy to be called that by his childhood hero. His small hand inadvertently reached for Asta’s, searching for the warmth and strength it offered.

“But we’re not blood-related.”

“Nope.”

“But,” Asta continued, turning towards Yuno with a gap-toothed grin, “we’re closer than people who are, right?”

A warm flutter went through Yuno at those words, even if he didn’t understand it. “Yeah,” he said. “What’s all this about?”

“Well, look.” Asta glanced into the distance again, then back at Yuno. “We don’t have any blood relatives,” he said, “so let’s take care of the friends we meet like they’re family!”

Yuno opened his eyes. The memory flickered and disappeared, but its impression did not fade.

Between the treasury and his companions in danger… he knew what he had to do.

Spinning around, he sent out a gust of wind just in time to shield Klaus from the attack.

\---

Asta swung his sword, easily slicing through the smoke as if there was nothing to stop his blade at all.

“Here’s another impetuous one,” said the man who had taken Luck captive. “And who are you, pray tell?”

Asta’s eyes locked firmly with the man’s. His breath came in sharp gasps. Behind him Noelle followed in, pointing her wand at the stranger.

“Can’t you guess what we are?” he shouted. “Of course we’re–”

\---

“Yuno!” Klaus burst out, spinning around with his face half relieved, half startled. “What are you doing, fool? Your priority is the mission–”

“No.”

Gathering his magic, he fixed his senior’s eyes with his gaze. “My priority,” he said, “should lie with–”

\---

In two places of the dungeon, far sundered by distance and countless walls of stone, two different voices, at the same time, shouted the same word. It echoed off the walls, reverberating through the silent hallways, fierce and stubborn and full of determination.

“ _Friends!_ ”


	24. I'm Not Stopping

The echoes of the crack resounded through the hall, slowly but steadily falling into silence. Yuno’s shoulders rose and fell with heavy breaths. The attack was blocked for the time being. Their enemy was kept at bay.

Klaus leaped free from his trap, spinning around to glare at Yuno in disbelief. “Fool!” he shouted. “Why did you come back? Even if you’re the only one left, get to the treasury! That is your duty for the sake of the Clover Kingdom!”

Yuno glanced at him, then at Mimosa, who had jolted upright in her flower bed when Klaus was attacked and now slowly sank back into it with a wince and a sigh of relief. There was no way he could leave them behind right now. It would be irresponsible. No self-respecting Magic Knight, no Wizard King in the making, would ever think of leaving his companions to certain death… right?

Besides, a voice whispered in his head, Asta definitely wouldn’t. And so he wouldn’t either.

“Let’s beat this guy,” he said, “and then go in together.” His eyes focused dangerously on the pale stranger.

“ _No more messing around._ ”

Air and mana gathered wildly about him. In front of him the wind formed dozens of blades, waiting for his signal to shoot forward and slice up their target. Above him, out of hundreds and thousands of spiraling gales, the air took the shape of a gigantic hawk.

“The Golden Dawn,” he said as he lifted his hand to attack, “will be the first to reach the treasure hall.”

Then all hell broke loose.

The blades and the hawk attacked at once. Like a neverending onslaught they darted against their attacker, lightning-fast, razor-sharp and unstoppably violent. Crystals rose out of the ground to hold back the barrage. Element clashed against element in an ear-deafening boom.

The dust cleared up, and amid the rabble the stranger stood still unharmed.

Yuno caught his breath. He had put his full strength into the attack, and still nothing. Crystals and armor of mineral kept off every blow he sent out.

Damn it. That guy was strong. Too strong, maybe. Part of Yuno whispered that he was too strong to defeat.

He shook it off. He wasn’t just anyone. He was aiming to be the Wizard King someday. If he couldn’t do this much, who was he? If he couldn’t defeat an opponent like this, could he truly say he would reach his goal someday?

If Asta was here, he wouldn’t give up so easily. Asta would grit his teeth and fight through. Keep trying and trying and trying, a million times over, until he either made it or collapsed from exhaustion.

So Yuno would do the same.

“Not yet,” he rasped out, wiping the dust off his face as he gathered his mana, ready to launch his next combo-attack. “There’s no chance I’m giving up yet!”

He struck again. Blocked. Again. No difference. Yuno varied his attack. So did the stranger. Crystals of ore shot towards him. Yuno dodged and blocked. His chest was heaving with ragged breaths, his skin covered in dust and scratches. He couldn’t keep going forever. He knew he couldn't. He was getting exhausted. And still the stranger didn’t show the slightest sign of breaking a sweat.

“Not yet,” he whispered to himself. His body couldn’t give in yet. It wouldn’t give in. He was stronger than that. He could do it.

Gasping and panting, he stumbled back, regaining his breath and mana as the stranger lifted his hand, ready for the next strike. Yuno’s arms and legs shook a little, from adrenaline or exhaustion or both, he couldn’t say. He badly wanted to sit down and rest his strained body, even just for a few seconds. And at the same time he felt tight as a wire, fully immersed in the heat of the battle, anxiously waiting for the next attack, every muscle inside him preparing to shoot forward at the slightest change in his opponent’s posture.

The pale stranger lifted his hand, higher and higher. The pages of his Grimoire flipped wildly as if moved by invisible fingers, until at last a single page stood up in the middle and then fell with a rustle that was drowned out by a thundering boom. In the middle of the air hovered a gigantic sword made entirely of crystal.

And it was floating directly above Yuno’s head.

“Begone.”

With that the giant blade began its steady descent to the ground.

Yuno wanted to react, but Klaus was faster. A metal spear shot out from where he stood, aimed directly at the stranger. A life-size puppet of ore materialized in front of it, blocking the attack even as it itself shattered into a million pieces.

They had no time to catch their breath. Immediately the same puppet rematerialized in a different spot, right in front of Klaus, aiming at him with its fist. Klaus barely managed to put up a shield and block it.

And still the giant sword was coming down, down, down.

Something brushed against Yuno’s head. He spun around from where he had been staring at Klaus and the puppet. The very hook of the blade was already low enough to touch him.

He ducked his head and jumped out of its path. The giant sword slammed into the ground and shattered with a crash. Yuno flipped frantically through his Grimoire. A sickle of wind took shape in front of him, shooting lightning-fast at the attacker.

It hit him. But nothing happened.

“Give up,” said the stranger as he stepped away unharmed, his entire body protected by the armor of ore. “Your magic doesn’t work on me.”

The sword again. Yuno jumped aside. It missed him by inches. He sent a shower of wind blades. Nothing. The blade again. It was getting faster and faster.

_I can’t do this._

There was that voice in his head again, this time louder and clearer than ever. What it was, Yuno couldn’t tell. Maybe reason. Maybe cowardice. Maybe a flash of his survival instinct, abruptly resurfacing from the rush of the battle.

Whatever it was, he refused to listen.

A memory flashed up in his head, the image of Asta and him as children, training their strength and their powers. Yuno had been a strong wind user even then, but Asta had had nothing, only a stick in his hand as he struggled to push through the stubbornly resisting air. Over and over he had been blown away. Over and over he had almost made it and then fallen backwards, carried back to his starting point. Over and over he had failed, and over and over Yuno had asked him to stop, because it was pointless.

But Asta had persevered.

And in the end, somehow, by sheer strength of will, Asta had managed to reach him.

Yuno sent another spiral of wind. He didn’t even care about the look or shape of his attacks by now. He just sent them wildly, randomly, as fast as he could, in the hope that something, anything, eventually might break his enemy’s unbreakable armor. The sword struck for him, pursued him, over and over. Yuno dodged slower each time. His legs could barely hold him anymore. He was almost out of mana. But he wasn’t stopping.

“It’s useless,” said the stranger as yet another attack brushed off him without leaving a scratch. “Just stop.”

Yuno launched another strike. “I’m not stopping.”

“Move.”

“ _I’m not moving._ ”

Asta’s face as he reached through the millionth attack of moving air, the stick in his hand poking against Yuno’s side. The look of exhaustion and triumph in his eyes.

“Give up.”

Yuno was directly underneath the blade now. His legs were trembling and shaking. He wouldn’t make the leap aside in time. And he didn’t want to.

“Yuno!” Klaus’ voice rang in his ears, but it seemed distant and remote, as if he was calling to him from a half-forgotten memory.

He didn’t know what he would do. He didn’t know what he could do. All he knew was that he had to keep going. Keep going and going until he reached his goal or died trying.

A shadow flashed in front of his eyes, too fast for his gaze to follow. A figure darted into his path. Lightning-fast and pitch-black, a sword shot up from below and sliced cleanly through the blade of ore.

“Hey, pale dude,” said a familiar voice.

It couldn’t be.

“Hands off this guy!” Asta shouted as he brandished his sword. “Yuno’s _my_ rival, got it?”

Impossible. Unbelievable.

He should have known.

“Crap,” Yuno rasped out as he slumped to the ground, catching his breath and yet smiling. “And just when I finally paid you back…”

Asta turned around, and for a short moment neither of them said anything. Their eyes locked together, their breaths rising and falling in sync, short and heavy with the rush of battle, and just for this second they both knew the other thought and felt exactly the same.

_A hero. All these years, and you’re still my hero._

Yuno was shaking, but the smile on his face couldn’t and wouldn’t leave. Asta was here. Asta had beaten the attack Yuno had struggled against. And all without magic, without powers, without anything. Armed exclusively with a sword and hard work.

If he kept going like this, his heart whispered, their rivalry still wasn’t over. If he kept going like this, he could still become a Magic Knight… no, even the Wizard King.

“Yuno!” Asta shouted abruptly, and the glittering moment disappeared. “I finally catch up on you and what are you doing? Don’t you dare lose on me, you jerk!”

Yuno almost laughed, part of him resisting the sudden urge to pull Asta into his arms right here in the middle of the battlefield. He didn’t, of course. Asta’s sudden return to normality had sparked a familiar glint of mischief in him, and a large part of him was still very much a sore loser. There was no fun in admitting his defeat, no matter how clearly he felt it.

“Why did you do that?” he asked with his usual blank face, staring at Asta like a sulking child. “I almost had him.”

Asta’s reply was immediate and, as Yuno had hoped, appropriately shocked. “Say what?” he exclaimed. “You liar! You’re totally beat up! You looked like you were gonna die!”

“I was just about to hit him with a counterattack.”

“You’re so totally lying! You always do that when you lose.”

“I never do that.”

“Liar, liar, pants on fire!”

“Name one time I lost and lied about it.”

“Just about, like, every time?” Asta gestured furiously. “You said you lost on purpose when I beat you at cards!”

“Nope. Can’t remember,” Yuno deadpanned, even though he knew exactly what Asta was talking about. “Didn’t happen.”

“There! You did it again! You’re lying!”

“Not to interrupt,” Noelle cut into their discussion, “but is now truly the time to have such an argument?”

They paused. Suddenly Yuno was fully aware of their enemy standing only a few footsteps away, unharmed but making no move to attack, instead watching them with an unreadable look on his face. And yet it seemed to Yuno that his expression was just a little less blank than before.

They had been careless. Had their enemy decided to attack them while their guard was down, they wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Yuno glanced at Asta. Asta glanced at Yuno. They both thought the same thing.

Better not waste another second.

“Okay then!” Asta shouted, just as Yuno took his position. “Let’s see who can take this guy down first!”


	25. Treasure, Unlocked

In the end, of course, it had been a team effort.

Asta caught his breath, clutching the sword in both hands, standing above his opponent where he lay on the ground, half expecting another surprise attack. But nothing came. After all the struggles, all the fighting, the pale stranger finally seemed to be knocked out for good.

His sword truly was miraculous. Without pause or hesitation it had sliced through all magic as if it wasn’t there, cutting through swords and armor of ore and shattering them to pieces. It was starting to feel lighter in his hands now, or perhaps he was simply getting used to its weight. But for the stranger that weight had been too much, like for everyone else, and the knock of it had left him unconscious on the ground.

But of course Asta would never have come this far alone. No matter his speed, his skill and his sword, he alone would have been outmatched by this fighter, chased around by attacks until he exhausted himself and could no longer swing his blade. It had been everyone who had made this possible, Black Bulls and Golden Dawn alike. It was Yuno’s wind that had kept his opponent at bay and brought Asta where he needed to be, Noelle’s water cradle that protected the injured Mimosa and kept the others from worrying about her, Luck’s lightning strikes that had confunded and distracted their enemy, Klaus’ iron that had blocked the roughest attacks. Asta had made the last strike. But the way there had been paved by all of them, together, rivalry and competition be damned.

With a heavy breath he lifted his sword high up in the air.

“Who’s going to the treasure hall?” he shouted, his voice reverberating through the dungeon. “We are, the Magic Knights of the Clover Kingdom!”

He turned around to find the others staring at him in a mixture of surprise and amusement.

“What?” he asked, flabbergasted.

Yuno gave him a sidelong look. “You just called yourself a Magic Knight.”

A splash of water from Noelle’s wand narrowly missed his face. “For shame, Stupidsta!” she yelled. “To think that you insect would have the insolence, the audacity–”

“...Oh.” Asta laughed sheepishly; he didn’t know how else to respond. “Oops… uh… Sorry!”

Damn it. During this whole mission he had felt so much like one of the Magic Knights that he had nearly forgotten the shame of the entrance exam, the way he had ruined his chances right in front of the squad captains and the way he still hadn’t found any magic of his own. The sword worked well enough in a fight, but would he be allowed to take it into the exam? And even if he did, how much would he be able to do with it? Would it be any use?

 _Maybe,_ a voice whispered in his head, _if I keep helping out, I can get in without the exam. If I get strong enough…_

A Magic Knight without magic. Was that even allowed?

And even if it was, could he ever become Wizard King with nothing but this sword?

“In any case,” Klaus’ voice interrupted his thoughts, “for now we need to bind this intruder before he wakes up. We shall take him back and quiz him later.”

Before he could ask what was supposed to be done, Klaus had already conjured a metal clasp around the unconscious stranger, keeping his torso and arms in a tight lock. “That will do,” he said, adjusting his glasses. “Now for the important matters!”

He stepped towards the treasury door, eyeing the great gate with an over-serious frown on his face. “I believe we were competing to see who could make it here first,” he said. “As you are surely aware, we won.”

Asta barely kept himself from making an exclamation; he had quite forgotten about that competition entirely.

“However,” Klaus added in the same tone, “we shall allow you to enter the treasure hall as well. Just this once!”

Asta’s head shot up in protest. “Don’t be so full of yourself, four-eyes!” he burst out. “Thanks a lot, you big jerk!”

Grimacing at him, he turned around and hurried towards the door, just as Klaus did the same. Then they both stopped short. They had all forgotten a rather important detail.

“So, uh…” Asta said, pointing, “how _do_ we get in, anyway?”

Klaus jolted and scowled, trying and failing to pretend that he hadn’t forgotten about that entirely. “Why are you asking me, fool?” he snapped. “Clearly there must be some kind of code, or perhaps a riddle–”

“Well, that’s your specialty, four-eyes! C’mon, think!”

“Will you be quiet–”

“Guys. Guys,” Luck interrupted them both, casually touching the gate. “The door’s made out of magic, so why don’cha just do that thing you did at the entrance, Asta?”

Asta blinked. Then he looked at his sword, then at the door.

“You think that’s gonna work?” he asked. “This thing doesn’t remove magic or anything, y’know… It just kinda ignores it.”

Luck stared at him with sparkling eyes that didn’t promise any good. “Just do it!”

“You just wanna see stuff blow up, do ya?”

“C’mon, try it! Try it!”

Yuno placed a hand on Asta’s shoulder. “Just try,” he said blankly. “You’re stupid enough for it to work.”

“You too, Yuno?!”

Yuno’s expression didn’t change, and Asta looked back at the door and back at the sword, pondering. The solid ore magic had shattered at the sword; but he had no idea how this door worked. Made of magic… Was it even real like the ore had been, or was it some kind of illusion? Would it shatter too? Would he phase through it behind the sword?

Only one way to find out.

“Okay!” he said, taking aim. “Everybody stay close behind me! Here… we… _go!_ ”

With that he threw himself sword-first at the door.

At first there was nothing. He simply seemed to fall into thin air, eyes closed, wondering if he would hit something other than the ground. Then there was a fine crack, a sound as of shattering glass. He opened his eyes.

And stood dazzled and blinded.

An endless hall opened in front of his eyes, great as a palace, so vast and wide he could barely see its ends. The ceiling was high as the sky, the walls like mountains on the horizon, towering yet remote, arched, sparkling, glittering with gems whose names no living human remembered. And everywhere, everywhere lay treasure, mazes, mountains of gold and silver and precious jewels, more than Asta had ever thought could exist, even in fairy tales.

“Whoa,” he burst out. “It’s like a whole new treasure world!”

Behind him the others had gathered, passing through the temporary disturbance in the door, staring and gaping awestruck at the treasury, the glow of the metals and jewels reflecting in their eyes. They exchanged a glance. Then, following a silent cue, all of them darted out and leaped into the hall at once.

It wasn’t what they were here for, but they couldn’t resist it. Not a single one of them could resist the urge to explore.

\---

It was probably a bit childish, Yuno thought as he picked up and fiddled with the sparkling gold and emerald necklace on top of one of the treasure-piles, but he couldn’t help it; the gold and silver and jewels the nobles wore had already astounded him, but this was a million times bigger. This was the stuff of legend, the kinds of riches he had only imagined growing up, sitting huddled next to Asta at the fireside and listening to Sister Lily’s fairy tales. And one of those very legends had suddenly come to life right in front of his eyes.

Underneath the necklace lay an ancient pot or vase adorned with precious metals, engraved with runes in a language Yuno did not recognize, and when he lifted up a fizzing light shot out of it and spiraled up into the air until it disappeared with a spark and flash in front of his face. He set the pot back down. Hopefully that little light had only been a joke or a toy, and he hadn’t suddenly robbed the age-old vessel of its power.

He looked around, wondering what to explore next, when something suddenly caught his eye. A parchment scroll, as of an ancient script, covered in strange but beautiful patterns, lying peacefully on a table in the midst of all the treasure. And yet not quite peacefully. Because, for some reason he could not himself understand, Yuno found himself irresistibly drawn to it.

Making his way around the treasure-piles, he stepped up to the table and carefully lifted the scroll with both hands.

On the inside it was covered in strange letters, an odd, unfamiliar writing he had never seen before. Another language, perhaps, a relic of long-forgotten days that none now lived to read and understand. And yet, before he could place it back down, he noticed that the writing was doing something to him.

No, not to him. To his Grimoire.

The book at his side began to glow. The scroll, too, flickered and glowed, the letters moving on the page as if they had come alive. Yuno wondered if he should drop it, but he couldn’t bring himself to. His hands only closed more tightly around the scroll-handles, his eyes glued on the writing as if he was being sucked into it.

Then, as suddenly as it had come, the glowing stopped, and the scroll was empty.

Yuno blinked and shook himself as if stirring from a dream. Klaus and Mimosa had gathered to him, staring at him in curiosity and no small amount of wonder.

“What was that light?” Klaus asked.

Yuno shook off his daze. “I don’t know.”

He placed the empty scroll back down, but still he couldn’t fight the feeling that something about him wasn’t quite the same as it had been before.


End file.
